Patient Provider Interaction

This book offers an introduction to the dynamics of the communication exchange between providers and patients in the health-care environment. Lisa Sparks and Melinda Villagran clearly explain how health communication theory and research can help us better understand these complex interactions, and provide strategies for improving patient and provider communication.

Drawing on the most current literature in this field, Sparks and Villagran show the transformations that new technologies such as email and text messaging have brought to communication with and between patients and providers, consider the roles of caregivers, both formal and informal, and illustrate how health-care organizations impact interpersonal interactions. Throughout the book, Sparks and Villagran deftly illustrate how communicative understandings of patient–provider interaction can have positive practical outcomes, feeding into health behavior change, creating a communication environment which can improve health literacy and ultimately lead to better health outcomes.

Lisa Sparks is Foster and Mary McGaw Endowed Professor in Behavioral Sciences at Chapman University and a Full Member of the Chao Family Comprehensive/NCI Designated Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine.
Melinda Villagran is Associate Professor and Director of Military Programs in Communication at George Mason University.