Clinical communication as 'targeted therapy': utilization of a novel biopsychosocial communication framework to facilitate clinical trust-building and shared decision making

Communication is central to all patient encounters. Palliative care clinicians receive and provide education about communication content and processes. The mechanisms underlying communication, such as individual neurobiology, psychological heuristics, and moral grounding, are rarely included in this education. Information about those communication mechanisms is fragmented across several disciplines, and though much has been learned in recent years, is incomplete. Interdisciplinary biopsychosocial care is a widely accepted conceptual framework for high quality, patient-centered clinical practice. A novel biopsychosocial communication framework can give palliative care clinicians an organized way to …