Identifying the mechanisms of patient-centred communication in secure messages between clinicians and cancer patients.

Objective: Identify how patients and clinicians incorporate patient-centered communication (PCC) within secure messaging.

Methods: A random sample of 199 secure messages from patient portal communication between patients and clinicians were collected and analyzed. Via manual annotation, the task of tagging target words/phrases in text, we identified five components of PCC: information giving, information seeking, emotional support, partnership, and shared decision-making.