Open research questions in Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
583 gap statements mined from Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 4,123 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
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What the literature leaves open
Future research should explore the information needs and challenges of patients with symptoms who have not engaged with charities; this might involve community-based recruitment approaches, particularly for marginalized groups or survivors with lower health literacy, who may find it more difficult to access health information.
A qualitative exploration of information access and provision for cancer survivors experiencing chronic bowel symptoms after pelvic radiotherapy: informing a framework to guide improvements to information provision · 2026 · DOIHospitals should also assess whether patients truly understand key information, have adequate opportunities to speak, and receive responses to major concerns. Higher treatment acceptance suggests that structured communication may reduce repeated explanations and decision hesitation caused by insufficient information, risk misjudgment, or low trust.
Optimizing physician-patient communication through an integrated perspective of prospect theory and the ultimatum game: a controlled study among patients undergoing elective surgery or invasive procedures in a Chinese tertiary hospital · 2026 · DOIFuture research should examine how patients’ perceptions and decision needs evolve across the HSCT decision-making trajectory and develop and evaluate decision-support interventions that better incorporate patients’ values, preferences, relational contexts, and practical circumstances.
The perceptions of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation decision-making in patients with hematologic malignancies: a qualitative systematic review · 2026 · DOIFuture research should consider the fact that SDM is a process, and work is needed to understand how and when to optimally measure SDM so that the impact of continued reflection and reasoning are not missed.
Reliability Testing of the CollaboRATE and SHARED Patient-Reported Measures of Shared Decision Making within Surgical Treatment Pathways: A Mixed-Methods Study · 2026 · DOIFuture work should explore more comprehensive, validated trust scales that account for its multidimensional nature. Future research could address these limitations by employing more detailed measurements and methodologies to enrich our understanding of the relationship between HIB, trust, and SDM.
The Effects of Patients’ Health Information Behaviors on Shared Decision-Making: Evaluating the Role of Patients’ Trust in Physicians · 2025 · DOIFuture research should consider additional qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the underlying causes and implications of the identified trends.
Based on the findings of this study, we suggest several directions for future research aimed at improving communication between nurses and surgeons. First, it is essential to examine communication perceptions across various hospital units, including outpatient departments (OPDs) and intensive care units (ICUs), to gain a comprehensive understanding of communication dynamics in different clinical settings.
Perceptions of Nurse–Surgeon Communication in the Operating Room: A Q-Methodology Study · 2025 · DOIWe noticed a gap in the literature providing practical guidance and felt that nurses and PCAs would be left to develop narration skills on their own, learning by trial and error, and, in doing so, perhaps failing to meet patients’ needs, which was supported by our HCAHPS data and discussions with patients.
Developing and Implementing a Narration of Care Framework to Teach Nurses When and How to Narrate Care · 2025 · DOIDiagnostic disclosure remains understudied in head and neck oncology.
Health professionals recognised the challenges of transmitting the information needed to improve knowledge. Urologists had little knowledge of shared decision-making and did not apply it systematically. Time limitations and doctor-patient trust issues were common challenges.
Perspectives of clinicians and screening candidates on shared decision-making in prostate cancer screening with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test: a qualitative study (PROSHADE study) · 2024 · DOIThe second most frequently cited barrier was insufficient understanding among the patients and their families (approximately 50%).
Shared Decision-Making in the Choice of Renal Replacement Therapy: A Comparative Text Mining Analysis of Physicians and Nurses · 2026 · DOIThe term “difficult patient” is ubiquitous in nursing practice yet remains poorly defined, variably applied, and laden with stigmatizing implications.
Beyond the “Difficult Patient”: Concept Analysis of Stigmatizing Language and Its Effects on Nurses and Patients · 2026 · DOILimited research has examined provider and staff skills and knowledge gaps, attitudinal barriers, or relevant training needs specific to caring for blind or low-vision patients.
“The Scarlet Letter B”: A qualitative study to improve health care provider education for patients who are blind or low-vision · 2025 · DOIThis implies that the interventions and general results reported in the ScR are not representative of all patients with cancer in all clinical settings, which on the other hand, further clarifies the knowledge gaps in the literature pertaining to the research question.
Uncovering Nursing Communication Strategies and Relational Styles to Foster Patient Engagement in Oncology: A Scoping Review · 2024 · DOIIn this sense, open questions, interview responses, and subjective appreciations are difficult to measure quantitively, hampering data extraction and statistical analysis, and introducing bias risk, which was confirmed through critical appraisal.
Conversations about prognosis for genetic neurodevelopmental conditions are becoming more frequent; however, there is a lack of evidence and guidance on how to approach these conversations and frame the information being provided.
Parents’ perspectives on conversations about prognosis and an assessment of prognostic information available online: A mixed-methods study · 2024 · DOIThe initial exposure to negative information may adversely affect parents' psychological well-being and expectations, which future research could address.
Parents’ perspectives on conversations about prognosis and an assessment of prognostic information available online: A mixed-methods study · 2024 · DOISecondly, it extends this limited evidence-base to explicitly consider the information needs of this group.
A qualitative exploration of information access and provision for cancer survivors experiencing chronic bowel symptoms after pelvic radiotherapy: informing a framework to guide improvements to information provision · 2026 · DOIThe evidence presented in this essay reiterates that language in desmoid care is far from trivial. It is a critical yet largely unaddressed component of the patient experience. Fully understanding the impact of diagnostic terminology requires international, mixed-methods research to quantify patient and clinician perspectives and to delineate the psychosocial consequences of specific terms.
The model was significantly associated with better risk understanding, greater trust in physicians, and higher treatment acceptance. It was also associated with a lower risk of 30-day complications after surgery or invasive procedures. These main findings remained generally stable after multivariable adjustment and sensitivity analyses.
Optimizing physician-patient communication through an integrated perspective of prospect theory and the ultimatum game: a controlled study among patients undergoing elective surgery or invasive procedures in a Chinese tertiary hospital · 2026 · DOIImportantly, organizational and planning‐related factors emerged as the most rele‐ vant barriers to SDM implementation, whereas negative attitudes toward SDM were rarely reported.
Interprofessional Insights into Shared Decision-Making in Inpatient Mental Health Facilities for Youth in Austria—A Cross-Sectional Study · 2026 · DOIVarious techniques have been studied to measure patient preparedness including multimedia and video resources, and phone calls, all of which show mixed results.
Embedding consent‑aligned patient education via electronic health record smart phrases to improve preparedness for skin cancer procedures: a quality improvement pilot · 2026 · DOIStudying professional vision in clinical practice, with ward rounds as a focal case, provides a conceptual framework for understanding how physicians coordinate perception, reasoning, and communication in clinical…
Future studies should assess the implementation of standardized decision aids and decision-support interventions across the full range of aesthetic plastic surgery and their effect on patient–clinician communication, patient satisfaction and decisional regret, as well…
Shared Decision-Making in Cosmetic Procedures and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery: A Systematic Review of Decision Aids, Clinical Benefits, Ethical Challenges, and Future Perspectives · 2026 · DOIPrincipal Findings The US and Norwegian trials comparing different ways of communicating the overall and statistical uncertainty of research results to the public generated mixed results.
Alternative Presentations of Overall and Statistical Uncertainty for Adults’ Understanding of the Results of a Randomized Trial of a Public Health Intervention: Parallel Web-Based Randomized Trials · 2025 · DOI
Most-cited papers in Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Shared decision-making in the medical encounter: What does it mean? (or it takes at least two to tango) · Social Science & Medicine · 1997 · 3,253 citations
- Shared Decision Making — The Pinnacle of Patient-Centered Care · New England Journal of Medicine · 2012 · 2,920 citations
- Patient-centredness: a conceptual framework and review of the empirical literature · Social Science & Medicine · 2000 · 2,201 citations
- Decision-making in the physician–patient encounter: revisiting the shared treatment decision-making model · Social Science & Medicine · 1999 · 1,788 citations
- Doctor-patient communication: A review of the literature · Social Science & Medicine · 1995 · 1,767 citations
- Race, Gender, and Partnership in the Patient-Physician Relationship · JAMA · 1999 · 1,596 citations
- Physician-patient communication. The relationship with malpractice claims among primary care physicians and surgeons · JAMA · 1997 · 1,520 citations
- Information Needs and Decisional Preferences in Women With Breast Cancer · JAMA · 1997 · 1,198 citations
- Trust in Physicians and Medical Institutions: What Is It, Can It Be Measured, and Does It Matter? · Milbank Quarterly · 2001 · 1,084 citations
- Physician Gender Effects in Medical Communication · JAMA · 2002 · 1,078 citations
Most recent work
- The interplay between shared decision making and uncertainty – a conceptual analysis and empirical illustration · Patient Education and Counseling · 2026
- PeriOperative Quality Initiative consensus statement recommendations on the definitions, aims and delivery of shared decision‐making for major surgery · Anaesthesia · 2026
- Enhancing patient education in multiple myeloma – The intersection of cognitive load and socio-emotional adaptation theory · Patient Education and Counseling · 2026
- The burden of shared decision-making: A scoping review of burden assessments in SDM research · Patient Education and Counseling · 2026
- From ‘dismissal’ to ‘medical gaslighting’: A literature review of women’s experiences of reproductive health services in the UK · Midwifery · 2026
- Psychometric validation of the informed consent assessment scale using item response theory and factor analysis · Frontiers in Medicine · 2026
- Risk Communication in Healthcare: The Management of Misunderstandings · Journal of Medical Systems · 2026
- Informasjon om interessekonflikter i nasjonale handlingsprogrammer for kreft · Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening · 2026
- Communication Challenges and Mitigation Strategies in Primary Care Virtual Consultations: Qualitative Study · Journal of Medical Internet Research · 2026
- Consent for anaesthesia: guidelines from the Association of Anaesthetists · Anaesthesia · 2026
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