Patient-Centred Communication in Ask-the-Expert Healthcare Websites
Pounds, Gabrina (2018) Patient-Centred Communication in Ask-the-Expert Healthcare Websites. Applied Linguistics, 39 (2). 117–134. ISSN 1477-450X
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Abstract
The study presented in this article explores to what extent and in what ways the communication between clinicians and patients on Ask-the-Expert healthcare websites is patient-centred. It further demonstrates the value of using a theory- and text-driven discourse analytical approach for the analysis of verbal communication in a (specific health) professional domain. The UK website Netdoctor is used as a case study. Thirty exchanges from this site, on the topic of depression, were analysed using a discourse-pragmatic framework, drawing on existing theories and definitions of patient-centred communication (PCC), a classification of empathic communication acts (Pounds 2011) and existing research on advice-giving in online communication. The analysis shows that, overall, experts make wide use of PCC, particularly empathic expression, in their online responses. The author concludes that there is a high potential for the expression of PCC on Ask-the-Expert health sites and that this may be more or less exploited, depending on the restrictions imposed on the contributors by the site managers and users’ expectations
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | patient-centred communication,empathy,advice,ask-the-expert healthcare websites,online medical consultation,depression |
Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies University of East Anglia > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Cross-cultural communication and translation University of East Anglia > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Language and Communication Studies ?? RGIS ?? ?? RGTIBG ?? |
Depositing User: | Pure Connector |
Date Deposited: | 22 Jan 2016 12:00 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2018 00:46 |
URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/56748 |
DOI: | 10.1093/applin/amv073 |
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