New Study Reveals Non-verbal Clues May Guide Doctor/Patient Relationships, Clinical Judgments

According to a new exploratory study from the University of Michigan Health System, subtle and unspoken clues exchanged by patients and doctors exert an influence on medical care. Researchers analyzed video recordings of routine checkups and conducted follow-up interviews with participants to help elucidate signals sent and received on both sides of the examination table. They add that  the method shows promise for improving medical decision making by allowing doctors to better understand how they make judgments and what messages they may be unwittingly conveying to patients. The results were published Sept. 26 in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.

The study found that patients relied on non-verbal clues to evaluate the doctor-patient relationship, focusing on whether the doctor seemed hurried or put them at ease. Doctors, on the other hand, reported that patients’ tacit clues influenced their medical judgments. “Our findings show that both doctors and patients identified tacit clues involving the behavior or appearance of the other, but they were not always able to articulate precisely how these clues informed their judgments and assessments,” says lead author Stephen G. Henry, MD, a research fellow at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System and Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. “Not surprisingly, patients and doctors discussed these clues very differently.” To read the full release and find out more about the study, click here.