Towards a guideline for person-centered research in clinical communication: lessons learned from three countries

The delivery of quality health care is dependent to a large degree on the success of the interaction between health care provider and patient. The ability to research this interaction has improved with the development of recording technology, storage and data coding. In addition, familiarity with recording of doctor-patient communication has increased encouraging researchers to embark on developing this data-rich resource. Factors that are pertinent to the collection of this material are outlined from the experience of researchers from three countries: The Netherlands, Norway and the UK. The conclusion stresses the need to attend closely to the issues listed to increase the likelihood of obtaining a research platform for investigating health care encounters in some depth. The article presents a first step in the production of a practical, person-centered guideline for this important research endeavour.