Communication Skills for Foreign and Mobile Medical Professionals

Introduction.- Basics of Interpersonal Communication in Health Care.- Structure of the Consultation.- General Communication Strategies and Skills.- Communication Skills Specific to the Consultation.- Special Challenges in Medical Communication.- Intercultural Challenges in Medical Communication.

Eddy Vanagt - developed a keen interest in the nature of medical communication during his life as a cardiologist at different hospitals in the Netherlands and Belgium. Over the past 10 years, while supervising and guiding an international group of interns at Antwerp Hospital Network, he compiled strategies and tips from the current literature with the help of feedback from the University of Antwerp's Medical Skills Lab staff and input from partners in Berlin, Maastricht, Ancona, and Gothenburg. Kris Van de Poel - University of Antwerp / Applied Language Studies - specialises in curriculum and syllabus design for professional and academic purposes. She developed the resource book's overall format and approach, relying on her teaching and training experience with both foreign and mobile medical professionals, and her research on this group's needs. Ulrike Schrimpf - Charité International Cooperation / Charité International Academy - has co-developed the intercultural component of this book drawing from years of involvement in teaching, developing, and publishing materials for different German medical contexts (Communication for International Doctors, Communication for International Nurses, Medical English and Cross-Cultural Communication). Jessica Gasiorek - is doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, studying interpersonal and intergroup communication, focusing on communication accommodation and its consequences across contexts. She has collaborated on projects related to this group, and has edited the language in this book for an international audience. All four authors have been collaborating on the European project Medics on the Move (2006-2012) for which they carried out research and developed interactive online and mobile communication tools across languages and cultures.