This is my last article until September. I hope the next few months prove relaxing and satisfying for you. I also hope that you will find this article as well as the other articles I have written this past year helpful as you reflect upon those activities that bring satisfaction and meaning to your life and to the lives of family and friends. I wish to thank the many readers who have taken the time to send me e-mails in response to my articles. The feedback is always appreciated. * * * * More than 25 years ago I had the pleasure of co-authoring the book A Pediatric Approach to Learning Disorders with two physicians at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Drs. Mel Levine and Jack Shonkoff. In the book we quoted an article by Barbara Korsch and Vida Francis Negrete published in Scientific American titled “Doctor-Patient Communication.” Korsch and Negrete examined factors that either enhanced or compromised effective communication between physicians and their patients. Knowledge of these factors is important for medical practice since an effective dialogue between these parties is associated with a greater likelihood of patients following through with a doctor’s recommendations. Korsch and Negrete offered some important…
