[Doctor-patient communication: one of the basic competencies, but different].

Effective communication skills form part of being a good doctor. Today there is solid evidence to support the teaching of effective communication skills in all medical schools. This article describes how communication is different from the other skills that medical students and residents need to learn, how this affects teaching and learning, and the application of these ideas in a Chilean medical school. We describe the premises that need to be taken into consideration when planning teaching communication in medicine and illustrate how these affected the development of our teaching of communication in our undergraduate curriculum. All medical education programmes should include formal teaching on the doctor-patient relationship, but must take into consideration the aspects of communication teaching that make it different from teaching other aspects of medicine.