The following excerpt appeared in the Chicago Tribune RESOURCES section on September 2, 2007 by columnist Verna Noel Jones.

John Q. Patient prefers John 

When you meet a new doctor, does he greet you by name? He should, because physician communication skills are as essential to quality patient care as medical knowledge, according to Stephen H. Miller, president and CEO of the American Board of Medical Specialties Research and Education Foundation.

A recent study funded by the board and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that nearly all patients want to be greeted and addressed by name when first meeting a doctor, yet only half of doctors offer this personal greeting.

"Doctors are constantly told how important it is to practice effective communication skills, but they're given very little direction about what that means or what patients expect of them," said Gregory Makoul, lead investigator of the study and professor and director of the Center for Communication and Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.