The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has a study which asked if “patient-physician communication examination scores in the clinical examination scores predicted future complaints in medical practice.”

Yep. They sure do.

The context described for the study: “Poor patient-physician communication increases the risk of patient complaints and malpractice claims. To address this problem, licensure assessment has been reformed in Canada and the United States, including a national standardized assessment of patient-physician communication and clinical history taking and examination skills,” the authors wrote. Patient complaints made to medical regulatory authorities were used as the authors’ definition of “complaint.”