Medicine and Health-Care
The project
The health-care system of Western industrial nations is currently undergoing change. This creates a high potential for conflict: the increase in costs calls for privatisations and reductions in the provision of services and requires rationalisation and increased efficiency. On the other hand is the call for the realisation of the ideal of the informed, competent and optimally cared for patient. As antithetical as these goals are in many ways, they both underline the importance of the need for making communication in the health sector more professional: Optimised communication between participants can reduce costs and contribute to better care. Service in health-care is based on linguistic and communicative processes. The domain of knowledge and its communicative characteristics are in need of better understanding and more effective and satisfactory communication. The project aims to make clear what contributions linguistics can make with regard to the current questions and problems in the domain of health-care. The guideline here is the optimisation of intelligibility and of the education of the patient. This needs to be realised in various respects:
- in the health education by the media
- in product information
- in medical consultations
- in the planning of diagnostic and therapeutic measures with the patient
- in consultations, psychological support as well as all forms of communicatively aided therapy and intervention
The named activities are to be dealt with in oral as well as written genres.
Aims of Medicine and Health-Care
Project-managersProf. Dr. Thomas Spranz-Fogasy
|
PartnersDr. med. Susanne Ditz
Leiterin Funktionsbereich Psychoonkologie |
apl. Prof. Dr. Albert Busch
Address: |
Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Detlef Brehmer
University of Witten/Herdecke, Faculty of Medicine |
