How do interventions designed to improve provider-patient communication work? Illustrative applications of a framework for communication.

In this broad overview for the Conference: "State of the Science in Cancer Care", we review a conceptual framework of physician-patient communication and use the framework to inform the application of theory regarding communication and patient preferences in clinical practice. Using a selection of research, we illustrate how problematic issues in communication can be represented by the framework. We further illustrate how interventions designed to improve communication or to elicit patients' preferences in a medical encounter may have their desired effect, or may be optimally evaluated.