Patient-physician communication during oncology consultations

Objective: The aim of this study was to characterize the content of patient‐physician communication in standard oncology care. Methods: The sample consisted of 19 patients with gastrointestinal cancer. The consultations were audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed according to qualitative content analysis. Results: The analysis resulted in seven main categories: Disease and treatment, Healthcare planning, Everyday living, Psychological well‐being, Coping with disease, Expressions of concerns and feelings, and Other aspects of communication. The main focus during the consultations was on disease and treatment. Physicians tended to concentrate on response to treatment and types and severity of side effects and how to treat them. More patient‐centered subjects of psychosocial character like coping and psychological well‐being were discussed only briefly, if at all. Conclusions: This study adds to the information given by the existing communication analysis systems, and hence we suggest a development of the psychosocial content categories of those systems to make them more valid. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.