Doctor -Patient Communication in the Medical Interview

[Michelina Bonanno]

On Feb 15, 1999 Susan Eggly wrote:
>
> Marta,
> I saw your message to the list, and, although I have never posted, it =
> sounds like the work I am doing is similar to yours.  I am looking at the =
> co-construction of the patient=27s narrative by the doctor and patient in =
> the medical interview.  I have always wondered about the cross-cultural =
> comparison of the medical interview--maybe in terms of patient narratives??=
>  =20
>
> Susan Eggly, Wayne State U., Detroit Michigan
>

Susan,

Your work is very closely related to my own. You might want to take a look
at my dissertation, Hedges in the Medical Intake Interview: Discourse
Task, Gender and Role.

 In it I discuss how patients sometimes enter the medical interview with
different expectations of the role and abilities of physicians, and how
these dirrerent frames of reference, in combination with the illusive
nature of the causes and cures of some diseases help to contribute to
misunderstandings and communication problems in the medical setting.
This is very much the case in cross cultural medical encounters where
 the patient's conversational style may further complicate the physician's
task of gleaning information in order to make an accurate diagnosis.

I also discuss the idea that the patient and the doctor jointly construct
the discourse of the medical interview and how the "analytical frame" of
the doctor dictates at times the course of the interview - so that whereas
Grice's conversational maxim, "Be Relevant" may actually apply to the
physicians analytica frame as s/he directs the discourse of the interview,
in terms of the surface level of the discourse, it may appear to the
patient that the physician is changing the subject.

I would like to hear more about your own work.
 Michelina Bonanno