New YouTube Video! Why Are We Still So Bad at Doctor-Patient Communication?
In this video, I explore a question that has been bothering me for some time: why are we still having the same conversations about patients feeling dismissed, unheard, or not taken seriously when doctor-patient communication has been taught in medical education for decades? Healthcare professionals are taught to listen, avoid interrupting, ask open questions, show empathy, and acknowledge patients' concerns. And yet, many patients continue to describe experiences in which they feel that their concerns haven't really been heard.
This isn't simply anecdotal. A recent Gallup and Pivotal survey of more than 5,000 adults in the US found that many people reported negative experiences with healthcare professionals, including having their symptoms or pain minimized or dismissed. These experiences were reported more often by women, but men reported them too. So while there are important gender differences, this is ultimately a patient issue.
I look at why good communication may involve much more than knowing the right techniques. A clinician can ask an open question without necessarily being genuinely curious about the answer. They can listen without interrupting while still having already formed an impression of the person sitting in front of them. Perhaps the patient is seen as anxious, overly focused on their symptoms, or a “worried well” patient. Once that impression takes hold, it can influence how everything the patient says is interpreted.
This becomes particularly important when someone has a complex or poorly understood health problem. Sometimes the biomedical findings don't fully explain the severity of the symptoms. Sometimes there are abnormal findings that haven't yet been adequately explained. Sometimes several things may be happening at once. And sometimes we simply don't have the full explanation yet.
That's where curiosity matters. What has changed for this person? How is their health affecting their quality of life, work, relationships, and ability to function? Is there something they're telling you that doesn't quite fit with the picture you currently have? Rather than seeing uncertainty as a reason to dismiss or minimize the problem, what if “I don't know yet” became the beginning of further investigation rather than the end of it?
Dismissal doesn't necessarily have to be deliberate. It can happen through a tone of voice, a rushed explanation, a failure to explore something further, or an assumption that a symptom isn't particularly important because a test result doesn't look concerning. A clinician may believe they have communicated appropriately while the patient leaves feeling confused, frustrated, distressed, or even questioning their own experience.
I also look at the difference between focusing on the biomedical picture and understanding the whole person. Symptoms, diagnoses, and test results are important, but so is understanding what those health problems actually mean for someone's life. What has changed? What can they no longer do? What are they struggling to manage?
Ultimately, perhaps the problem isn't that doctors haven't been taught how to communicate. They have! The more difficult question is what happens to those skills when the patient doesn't fit the picture the clinician has already formed. Communication matters most when the case is complicated, the symptoms don't fit neatly into the test results, and the clinician doesn't yet know what's going on.
That is when curiosity, humility, and genuine listening matter most.
Watch the video below. 👇
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Dr. Ingela Thuné-Boyle provides specialized online coaching for adults living with chronic illness, chronic pain, persistent physical symptoms, and mind-body syndromes, helping people better understand their symptoms, develop effective self-management skills, and improve their quality of life. She is a Chartered Psychologist and Doctor in Behavioural Medicine with over 25 years of experience in Health Psychology, bringing a strong evidence-based understanding of the psychological, behavioural, and physiological factors that influence health and wellbeing. Learn more about her background [here] and her coaching approach [here].
📩 Contact: For coaching or other enquiries, you can contact her at info@ingelathuneboyle.com.
Please note: Advice given in this blog is not meant to take the place of coaching, therapy or any other professional advice. The opinions and views offered by the author is not intended to treat or diagnose, nor is it intended to replace the treatment and care that you may be receiving from a licensed physician or mental health provider. The author is not responsible for the outcome or results following their information and advice on this blog.
