Role of doctor-patient communication in rheumatology

Grekhov R.A.; Aleksandrov A.V.; Zborovskaya I.A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.17116/profmed202528041156

Abstract:

A review devoted to the analysis of communications in rheumatic diseases clinic, as well as studies on the communicative skills of rheumatologists is presented.

OBJECTIVE OF THE REVIEW

To analyze the styles and quality of doctor-patient communication, as well as the role of rheumatologist’s communicative competence in increasing the effectiveness of solving therapeutic and diagnostic tasks.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The search for scientific articles that are available in PubMed, eLibrary, MedLine, Science Direct, Research Gate electronic databases was carried out by search queries corresponding keywords of this article.

RESULTS

Most studies on doctor-patient communication are not focused on rheumatic diseases. Few studies have shown that effective communication between doctor and patient can positively impact on patient’s compliance and improvement of his life quality. At the same time, low communication quality is associated with reduced patients’ adherence to treatment and unacceptable therapy results, as a lack of confidence in doctor and sufficient information on the disease highly likely leads to bad patient’s adherence to prescribed medication regimen. This increases the risk of disease activity, exacerbations frequency and damage of visceral organs.

CONCLUSION

Effective medical communications are important component of treatment process, promote patient’s confidence, have a significant impact on his compliance, motivate to actively participate in treatment process, improve emotional well-being and satisfaction with treatment, as well as patient’s life quality. Training of medical students and rheumatologists on the skills of communication with patients is an important element of higher medical education program.

Keywords:

medical communication

doctor’s communicative competence

communication skills

rheumatic diseases

Authors:

Grekhov R.A.

A.B. Zborovsky Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology;
Volgograd State Medical University

ORCID: 0000-0002-7928-5728

Aleksandrov A.V.

A.B. Zborovsky Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology;
Volgograd State Medical University

SPIN RSCI: 4755-0940
Scopus AuthorID: 25645530000
ResearcherID: C-6738-2018
ORCID: 0000-0002-0686-4067

Zborovskaya I.A.

A.B. Zborovsky Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology

SPIN RSCI: 2165-4396
ORCID: 0000-0003-3898-7667

Received:

09.02.2025

Accepted:

27.02.2025

Close metadata

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