Does Communication Effectiveness Assessed by Communication Scholars Correlate with Patient Perception of Clinician Empathy?

Haley Ponce, Rafael Cordero, Jacinta Tran, Natalie Wellman, David Ring

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Journal of patient experience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Comparing AI and physician medical advice quality and humanistic care on social media platforms.Digital health
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Haley PonceDepartment of Surgery and Perioperative Care, Dell Medical School-The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.

Rafael CorderoDepartment of Surgery and Perioperative Care, Dell Medical School-The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.

Jacinta TranMoody School of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.

Natalie WellmanMoody School of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.

David RingDepartment of Surgery and Perioperative Care, Dell Medical School-The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6506-4879

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In a prior study, communication scholar ratings of clinician communication effectiveness did not correlate with perceived clinician empathy, which is one aspect of patient experience. We repeated the analysis with a different rating of communication effectiveness to increase confidence that the lack of association was not due to an inadequate rating tool. Video-recorded visits (108) were rated by 3 trained observers using the Communication Quality Analysis with acceptable reliability. Patients completed measures of perceived clinician empathy, pain accommodation, health anxiety, and depression symptoms. Negative binomial regression analysis sought factors associated with perceived clinician empathy. Only accommodation of pain met the criterion for entry into a multivariable model for perceived clinician empathy (ρ = 0.17;

Indexed as

clinician empathycommunication effectivenessmusculoskeletal carepatient experience

Identifiers

PMID39989889

DOI10.1177/23743735251323674

PMCPMC11846112

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.