Study Profiles Effective Doctor-Patient Communication
Key Component of Specialty Certification

View a PDF of the study

EVANSTON, Ill. – June 11, 2007 – Almost all patients want to be addressed by name when meeting a doctor for the first time, but only half the doctors offer this personal greeting during an initial visit, according to a new study funded by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Research and Education Foundation and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.The study focused on greetings exchanged during a first visit and is the first of several ABMS Foundation-funded studies on how doctors communicate with their patients.

Doctors did far better in other aspects of greetings, such as shaking hands with patients.  But the study suggests that physicians may benefit from specific guidance in communication skills, which are increasingly recognized as an essential component of quality healthcare. ABMS, whose 24 Member Boards certify physicians, requires competency in communication skills as part of its new Maintenance of Certification initiative, an ongoing evaluation program that assures doctors continue to keep up the skills and knowledge of their specialty.

“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, Ph.D., lead investigator of the study and professor and director of the Center for Communication and Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. “This study provides an evidence-based recommendation of how to go about improving one particular aspect of communication – greetings – starting with the first time doctor and patient meet.”

In addition to creating a positive tone and setting the stage for a good doctor-patient relationship, using the patient’s first and last name in an initial greeting ensures proper identification of patients, which is a fundamental aspect of patient safety, notes Dr. Makoul.

Based on the results of the study, Dr. Makoul and his colleagues recommend physicians initially use patients’ first and last names, as well as their own first and last names at the first visit, noting that the use of parallel terms puts the doctor and patient on equal footing.  They also recommend that doctors plan to shake hands, but be sensitive to patients who either don’t want to or can’t.

Communication Skills Essential to Quality Healthcare

The study on greetings is part of research funded by the ABMS Research and Education Foundation on physician communication and professionalism, two of the six general competencies required by the Maintenance of Certification program. The other competencies focus on patient care, medical knowledge, how well the doctor’s practice operates, and how efficiently the doctor’s office interacts with the broader healthcare system.

As a next step, Dr. Makoul and his colleagues have been developing and testing a survey that will allow patients to evaluate their doctor’s communication skills and may become one of the assessment tools used for Maintenance of Certification.

“Physician communication skills are becoming increasingly recognized as being as integral to quality patient care as medical knowledge,” said Stephen H. Miller, M.D., M.P.H., president and CEO for ABMS. “By funding these studies, the ABMS Foundation is supporting the development of rigorous, scientific-based information that not only provides effective tools to assess and evaluate doctors but also offers physicians detailed patient feedback for improvement.”

More than 90 percent of U.S. licensed physicians are ABMS Member Board certified.  The ABMS certification is widely recognized by physicians, healthcare institutions, insurers and patients as the gold standard for judging a physician’s knowledge, experience and skills for providing quality healthcare within a medical specialty.

The first part of this two-part study involved a random telephone survey of 415 people, which asked whether they’d like a physician to call them by name on the first visit, how they’d like the physician to refer to himself or herself, and whether the physician should offer to shake hands. The second part of the study included 123 videotaped first visits between primary care doctors and patients to determine what actually occurred.   

According to the study:

• 91.3 percent of patients wanted the doctor to address them by name (50.4 percent preferred first name, 17.3 percent preferred last name, and 23.6 percent preferred both names), while 49.6 percent of videotaped doctors actually used the patient’s name (13.8 percent used first name, 32.5 percent used last name and 3.3 percent used both names).
• 96.1 percent of patients wanted the doctor to introduce himself or herself by name (7.2 percent by first name, 32.5 percent by last name, 56.4 percent by first and last name) while 88.6 percent of doctors actually introduced themselves by name (30.1 percent by last name, 58.5 percent by both names, none by first name).
• 78.1 percent of patients preferred the doctor shake hands, and 82.9 percent of doctors actually shook hands.

About ABMS

The American Board of Medical Specialties is the pre-eminent medical organization overseeing physician certification in the United States. It assists its 24 Member Boards in their efforts to develop and implement educational and professional standards for the evaluation and certification of physician specialists. ABMS Member Boards provide physician certification information to ABMS for its certification verification service programs. ABMS is recognized by the key healthcare credentialing accreditation entities as a primary equivalent source of board certification data for medical specialists. The American Board of Medical Specialties Research and Education Foundation is a not-for-profit charitable organization affiliated with the ABMS. Its mission is to support the scientific, scholarly and public education mission, purposes and goals of ABMS to improve healthcare quality. Visit www.abms.org or call (847) 491-9091.