How physicians describe outcomes to HCV therapy: prevalence and meaning of "cure" during provider-patient in-office discussions of HCV.

Background: How physicians convey information about hepatitis C virus (HCV) impacts patients' perceptions of treatment outcomes and informed therapy decisions. However, HCV patients reported difficulties communicating with their physicians in a recent study. Another study showed that 45% of patients did not understand projected response rates conveyed by providers, and patients with unfavorable projected treatment outcomes were more likely to lack understanding.

Improving in-office discussion of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: results and recommendations from an in-office linguistic study in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Effective management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) requires successful physician-patient communication. Unfortunately, however, both parties often report problematic communication. Accommodating patients' desire for more information and an increased role in decision-making can increase their satisfaction surrounding the dialogue.

Physicians, nonphysician healthcare providers, and patients communicating in hepatitis C: an in-office sociolinguistic study.

In-office conversations about hepatitis C can impact patients' perceptions of outcomes, as well as medication adherence. This study analyzed interactions between physicians, nonphysician healthcare providers (including nurses), and patients with hepatitis C virus infection in order to examine differences based on number and type of providers participating. Gastroenterologists, nonphysician healthcare providers, and patients with hepatitis C virus infection were video- and audio-recorded during regularly scheduled visits.

Symptoms and signs in particular: the influence of the medical concern on the shape of physician-patient talk.

Talk between physicians and their patients has been shown to be shaped by participant characteristics,phase of the visit, and professional and institutional constraints. Surprisingly, the medical concern that brings the participants together has not been systematically and thoroughly investigated as a shaping influence on such talk. Based on a synthesis of separate interactional sociolinguistic studies of ten different medical concerns involving 395 patients and 105 physicians, I identify seven major differences across medical issues that may shape physician-patient discourse.

Provider-patient in-office discussions of response to hepatitis C antiviral therapy and impact on patient comprehension.

Background & Aims: Providers need to communicate projected response rates effectively to enable patients with hepatitis C virus to make informed decisions about therapy. This study used interactional sociolinguistics (1) to evaluate how gastroenterologists and allied health professionals communicate information regarding response rates to antiviral therapy, (2) to determine how these discussions relate to where the patient is in the continuum of evaluation and treatment, (3) to assess whether patients were aligned with providers in their perceptions of response rates after office visits, and (4) to identify factors that improve provider-patient alignment.

Methods: Gastroenterologists, allied health professionals, and patients with hepatitis C virus were videotaped and audiotaped during regularly scheduled visits.

"People Say It's a Little Uncomfortable": Prenatal Genetic Counselors' Use of Constructed Dialogue to Reference Procedural Pain.

Prenatal genetic counseling involves an exchange of information between counselors and clients, including verbal descriptions of the potential pain of invasive prenatal diagnosis procedures such as amniocentesis. This paper describes the use of one linguistic feature in one context. It considers how two counselors describe procedural pain in 17 prenatal genetic counseling sessions, audiotaped as part of a larger data-driven study using sociolinguistic methodologies to characterize the discourse of genetic counseling.