Keys to Good Communication Edited by Philip R. Myerscough and Michael Ford.
Family physicians consider themselves masters of communication and patient interviewing.
This book may help us understand why. While it is written for medical students and residents, practicing family physicians will find enough confirmation of their current skills, as well as a few new skills, to justify a brief reading. A more interested reader might be a family physician responsible for teaching such skills or one who frequently supervises and teaches students or residents. While the book has a distinctly British orientation in its references and context, good communication skills are universal. The chapter on the actual conduct of an interview provides helpful ideas on the mechanics and structure of most interviews and on how the diagnostic reasoning process used by most physicians guides the selection of questions.