An international collaborative on communication: Connecting research, education and practice

Excellent healthcare communication considers patient journeys the experience of the patient, the flow of information along with the complementarity of medical considerations and interpersonal ones (e.g., empathy, engagement and rapport); the connection between multidisciplinary research and the education, training and practice of healthcare practitioners; and the insights that can be gained by comparing healthcare communication within healthcare systems around the world. The symposium presentations represent the work of an international, multidisciplinary collaborative of healthcare communication expertsclinicians, educators, and academic researchers. Presenters share the International Charter for Human Values in Healthcare, an initiative of the International Collaborative on Communication in Healthcare (now the International Research Centre for Communication in Healthcare), and describe how they have come together to understand and improve the role of communication in the delivery of compassionate, quality healthcare.