Exploring Clinical Communication in Asia: Culture, Discipline, Best Practice and Clinicians’ Voices in the Chinese Context

Drawing on socially-oriented functional linguistics, this book offers a detailed and systematic overview of the role that language plays in clinician-patient communication in Asian contexts. Putting forward a communication model specific to this particular sociocultural and medical setting, it provides clear and research-driven recommendations for healthcare professionals. Building on cutting-edge empirical research on the health communication landscape in Asia, this book addresses topics of interest to researchers in health communication and applied linguistics more broadly. It also provides healthcare professionals with the resources necessary for a critical reflection of their professional practice. The book makes use of data gathered through a variety of methods, including audio and video recordings of clinician-patient communication, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographic observations. It also uses a cross-disciplinary approach, combining the expertise of linguists, clinicians and health communication researchers, to identify communication features of effective and ineffective interactions, focusing on the communication breakdowns and vulnerable points which jeopardize the quality and safety of the patient experience.