Communication in Medicine Communication in medical practice across ethnic boundaries

Summary: The communication skills basic to good medical practice are, for many of us, unnatural. The authors attempt to address aspects of the matter with particular reference to communication across ethnic boundaries. The aim of medical practice is to relieve suffering and symptoms, to cure and to promote and maintain health. This requires a problem-solving approach to the human condition in both physical and social frameworks. The Flexner approach to medical practice has led to great advances in medicine at the microbiological and technical levels but with less attention being paid to social and psychological factors within health and disease. In particular, it has sometimes therefore failed to do justice to the importance of these factors in the clinical consultation, where communication i