title: The lack of communication between doctors and patients.
abstract: In their daily work the majority of doctors assume that communication with patients is easy and that it needs no special study. This is a false assumption which starts at undergraduate level, where there is no formalized training of the South African medical student in the art of communication. A mass of literature on communication in medicine has evolved very recently; some of it is reviewed, and a plea is made that urgent attention be devoted to this gap in South African medicine.
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003142:Communication; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D004501:Education, Medical; D008568:Memory; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013019:South Africa