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Find a Doctor You Can Talk With By Damon Adams American Medical News

What a difference a nice smile and a pleasant attitude make!

A group of researchers recently found that physicians who are friendly to their patients are more effective than doctors who keep their distance. Two other recent studies showed the importance of the doctor-patient relationship, with women more focused than men on a physician's communication skills and personal approach.

In the eyes of most patients, bedside manners matter.

"Practitioners who attempted to form a warm and friendly relationship with their patients ... were found to be more effective than practitioners who kept their consultations impersonal, formal or uncertain," according to a study published recently in The Lancet, a British medical journal.

The study examined 25 surveys on doctor-patient relationships and consistently found that doctors with good bedside manners had a better impact than physicians who were less personal. Three of the 25 showed that enhancing a patient's expectations through positive information and reassurance "significantly influenced health outcomes."

Meanwhile, a recent study that analyzed the role gender plays in doctor-patient relationships found that both genders are concerned about how they are treated, but women care more about having a strong relationship with their doctor, said co-author Jerome Williams, Ph.D., an associate professor of marketing at Penn State University's Smeal College of Business Administration.

Women want to have a sense of control and don't want to be talked down to. Men are more interested in treatment.

Williams' advice to physicians? "They should learn to be more responsive to customer needs," he said.

And taking the opposite approach can have a negative result. Consider Bonnie Russell, a patient in Del Mar, Calif. She left her doctor after seeking treatment for a broken foot. She didn't like his attitude when she complained about waiting until after he saw drug company representatives.

"He's always been curt, but he went over the line this time," she said.

Joe Selby, M.D., also saw gender differences in a study he co-authored about patients at Kaiser Permanente in northern California. Women who chose women doctors were the least satisfied with their care (74 percent), while men who picked women physicians were the most satisfied (85 percent).

Women placed a higher value than men on a doctor's communication, technical skills and personal manner. "Women patients have higher expectations of their physician," said Selby, director of the research division for Kaiser in Oakland, Calif.

(c) 2001, American Medical News, Los Angeles Times Syndicate

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001