Commentary on enhancing clinician communication skills in a large healthcare organisation

The paper by Stein et al. [1] contains important lessons for other healthcare organisations on the development and implementation of a teaching programme to improve clinician– patient communication. The development is based on sound educational principles although these are not overtly expressed in the paper. Implementation uses a ‘top down’ cascade and faculty development that could form the basis of an integrated approach to teaching a skill set required across medical specialities. The paper, therefore, is significant