Using data drawn from ten initial physician/patient interviews, an original category system was employed to analyze patterns of physician/patient communication. Static analysis, interaction analysis, and Markov chain analysis were used to discover the underlying communication patterns associated with patient satisfaction. Results revealed that patient satisfaction was correlated with the physician talking more than the patient and controlling the topics of communication, with the physician spending relatively equal amounts of time prescribing what to do and giving cognitive information, with the physician preceding or following explanatory information with directives, with the physician and patient responding to each other in basically the same content areas, and with the physician meeting patient expectations (such as responding appropriately to patient questions). (Author/RL)