The New Medical Conversation: Media, Patients, Doctors, and the Ethics of Scientific Communication

"The New Medical Conversation succinctly and effectively brings together a range of relevant perspectives. It outlines the tensions and opportunities that exist for physicians who seek to discuss risk matters effectively with their patients. It explores the current contexts of patient safety, individual rights to treatments or information, the legal requirements of informed consent, the ethical perspectives and the constraints on patients and professionals in seeking to achieve greater shared understanding about treatments and care choices. Mazur explores the way physicians can effectively discuss relevant information with their patients, using appropriate 'information messages,' being aware of the pitfalls of framing manipulations, and seeking to enhance both global and specific areas of understanding. In so doing Dr. Mazur is showing how we can meet the requirements of modern consumerist health care and yet also maintain the essential and supportive qualities of physicians conversing with their patients."--Adrian Edwards, University of Wales College of Medicine, Llanedeyrn Health Center