What Patients Reward and Punish in Physician Communication: A Framework-Based Analysis of 62,319 Indian Reviews
Research Milestone · July 2026
A new preprint examines the relationship between physician communication behaviours and patient-generated outcomes in India. The study analyses 62,319 reviews from Practo, covering 10 cities and 8 medical specialties, using a framework based on the Kalamazoo Consensus Statement, Calgary-Cambridge Guide, and SPIKES protocol.
The analysis identifies reassurance and empathy as the communication dimensions most strongly associated with patient recommendation, while excessive directiveness and rushedness show the strongest associations with adverse behavioural outcomes, including switching intent. The findings offer a framework for translating patient-generated narratives into measurable communication constructs relevant to medical education and healthcare quality improvement.
The study, “What Patients Reward and Punish in Physician Communication: A Framework-Based Analysis of 62,319 Indian Reviews,” is available as a medRxiv preprint. It has not yet undergone peer review, and its observational findings describe associations rather than causal effects.