A review of communication models and frameworks in a healthcare context

If one accepts that personal communication is core to the healthcare provider-patient relationship, then the quality of these interactions during routine consultations will have an important impact on outcomes. Provider-patient communication dynamics, however, can be influenced by different issues, such as the content of the encounter and the style of both parties' interactions.^1,2,3,4,5 These practical issues, however, cannot be fully explained without a conceptual understanding of existing healthcare communication models or frameworks. This article, therefore, briefly reviews key communication models and frameworks in healthcare developed since 1950, which underpin provider-patient relationships in medical and dental contexts. This examination of the historical development of the existing conceptual models and frameworks may potentially provide directions for future research in healthcare provider-patient communication.

The earliest studies related to healthcare provider-patient relationships date back to the 1950s. To analyse a society as a social system, Parsons⁶ proposed that people were assumed to enact roles associated with their positions. Interactions between two individuals, such as a physician and a patient, were analysed using his sociological theory of structural-functionalism. Drawing on this theory, the doctor was considered as the one who played the dominant position by virtue of his/her professional knowledge and skills.