The genetic program. The tree of life. A battle against cancer. These health-related metaphors have become so ubiquitous that they can slip past our notice. Metaphor has been recognized as one of the most important rhetorical devices of all time, ever since Aristotle treated it in his Art of rhetoric. Metaphors are as sophisticated as […]
3 Common patient communication roadblocks (and how to get past them)
I’ll get right down to business: You care about patient communication because you know what a difference it makes to the care you provide. The many health care professionals I’ve talked to over the years, like you, care about patient communication. And over time, I have heard some common problems, challenges, and requests when it […]
My single best piece of advice for health professionals
Recently, we celebrated the first anniversary here at the Health Communication Partners website. If you’ve been following along, you know that at HCP we believe in taking a resource perspective rather than deficit perspective. On everyone—providers and patients. We understand that health communication is a subset of everyday communication. We know everyone can learn (and […]
5 quick wins for your patient communication
Sometimes you just need a quick win. A panel I attended last week spent about 90 minutes really getting into the weeds of some serious issues around patient communication. Toward the end, the moderator turned to the panel and said, “Well, everyone wants a quick win.” He then put the panel members on the spot: […]
How your organization’s digital health tools can leave patients behind (and what can be done about it)
A health care administrator was talking with me about digital health tools. They’re everywhere, he acknowledged, pointing to several apps on his own smart phone. But he knew sometimes they weren’t all they’d cracked up to be. And this often fell at the foot of the provider. Of course, providers usually aren’t the developers or […]
This may change the way you think about patient education
You’ve seen me talking about patient education quite a bit around here, on the podcasts and in the articles. And sure, maybe you have a bunch of past CMEs on patient education cluttering up your cloud storage right now. It’s kind of the modern equivalent of the dusty binders on the shelf. I’m not immune. […]
