Language and Clinical Communication: This Bright Babylon

The search for a set of skills which can be identified and taught as 'good clinical communication' has been of considerable value in persuading decision makers at medical schools and other bodies that communication matters. These days, very large numbers of medical schools use what are essentially skills-based models, such as the extraordinarily thorough Calgary-Cambridge approach. However, I believe that the emphasis on communication' as simply a set of skills, such as eye contact, open qu...