Explains how parents can help alleviate their children's anxiety when visiting the doctor or taking medication. The Children's Health Forum helps parents and children via booklets distributed nationally in doctors' offices and pharmacies that allow children fully to express their opinions and feelings. (SM)

Presents summary of a panel discussion at the Conference of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (1992) on the health risks of treating obesity. The panel focused on selectivity in accepting patients, obesity and mortality, genetic individuality, weight loss mode and outcome, weight loss and longevity, and weight maintenance.…

A study found that dentists (n=164) receiving predoctoral and continuing instruction on the behavioral approach to caring for fearful patients recognized a higher proportion of fearful patients in their practices and were motivated to identify barriers to their care. They also found the costs of treatment to be greater. (MSE)

Discusses the barriers created when communication breaks down between physicians and poor patients, a failure generally resulting from inadequately shared information and a power asymmetry in the relationship. Suggests strategies for improving communication with poor patients, including improving listening and responding skills, avoiding jargon,…

As weight training becomes increasingly popular with children and adolescents, physicians need to advise patients and parents about what is safe and what is not. Young people who adhere to a well-supervised, progressive strength training program can improve their strength and improve performance in other sports. (SM)

Focuses on if conditionals in medical discourse. Three genres are examined: research articles, journal editorials, and doctor-patient consultations. Analyzes a variety of formal, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of conditionals across genres. Concludes with brief reflections on pedagogic implications. (Author/VWL)

Assessed MedEthEx Online, a computer-based learning program, in improving communication skills as part of a required bioethics course for medical students. Exam scores of users were comparable with non-users, although computerized-learning students scored higher in specific exam areas, felt somewhat more clinically prepared, and rated the course…

Examines the experiences and rhetorical actions of key medical scientists and physicians who have treated, studied, and written about AIDS since the epidemic's beginning. Explains that those first to describe the disease report the rhetorical challenge was convincing their audience to accept the novel idea of AIDS and to see the cases as an…

Responses of 84 psychiatrists who completed a questionnaire as they thought a mentally healthy adolescent of their gender would respond compared well to 140 actual responses, but comparison of 61 psychiatrists' responses to responses of 70 disturbed patients showed that psychiatrists viewed these adolescents as more psychopathological than their…

Investigates the cultural context and the silent language of health care delivery from the perspective of foreign-born, Vietnamese immigrants. Suggests that business communication instructors need to incorporate cultural health beliefs, time orientation, and the expected role of family members in the practice of health care as they prepare…

Although many observers have drawn attention to the low levels of trust in physicians among members of racial/ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status, the reasons for this mistrust are not well understood. Using a social distance perspective and a large, nationally representative data set, I find that blacks and Hispanics are…

The authors integrate poetry and narrative into their self-study application of the research methodology known as Appreciative Inquiry (AI) focused on: (a) their personal and professional practice and development; (b) their teaching practice in universities and informal/popular education settings; and, (c) their educational research in the area of…

Intended for use by parents of children and youth with handicaps, this guide offers guidelines for choosing a physician and communicating with him/her concerning the needs of the handicapped child. The question-answer format addresses the following issues: how do families choose a doctor for their child?; what about the child who has a…

Perceptions of the quality of medical care and the attitudes of medical personnel experienced by people infected with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) virus were studied using subjects known to be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. Ten infected subjects participated in the study. Their interview…

Predicated on the knowledge that effective communication among medical personnel and patients is fundamental to the achievement of successful health care delivery, this paper addresses the practice of chaplain intervention on behalf of the patient in primary care to enhance physician-patient interaction. First the paper defines culture (in the…