Italian doctor-patient interactions: A study of verbal and non-verbal behavior leading to miscommunication

This study discusses aspects of doctor-patient communication and presents a preliminary analysis of doctor-patient interactions in Italy. The aim is to gain information on how (mis)communication between doctors and patients may affect the doctor-patient relationship and may lead patients to lack trust in their doctors. The authors use a corpus of existing audio-video materials on Italian doctor-patient interactions, and analyse doctors’ use of verbal and nonverbal expressions in their exchanges with their patients. The analysis is aimed to identify which features may engender communication problems –leading to misunderstandings and the perception of doctors as distant or unreliable. The preliminary findings reveal that patients’ lack of trust in doctors may also be the result of doctors’ use of culture-specific patterns of verbal and nonverbal expressions, for example certain sentences used for minimizing patients’ fears, specific postures and gestures signalling distance or closure. These findings will be used for planning future investigations of doctor-patient interactions based on the collection and analysis of audio-visual material. Having a detailed knowledge of what patterns mostly affect communication in natural settings will provide important information to be implemented in digital devices