The International journal of pharmacy practice
-
Communication is a key issue in the delivery of healthcare services. In the pharmacy context, pharmacist-patient communication may vary from brief counselling episodes to extensive pharmaceutical care consultations. Many community pharmacies have developed practices to facilitate the effective delivery of pharmacy care, in particular to chronic patients, although the nature and extent of the services differ widely from country to country. ⋯ This has hampered the field's ability to link pharmacy communication to outcomes, including patient adherence and satisfaction with services. An extensive body of communication research on physician-patient interaction, employing the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS), exists and the system presents a potentially useful tool in the pharmacy context. The purpose of this essay is to explore the utility of the RIAS for analysis of pharmacist-patient interaction and its implication for improving patient care and optimizing pharmacy-specific outcomes.