Conclusion: Advancing healthcare communication research in ‘Global Peripheries’

Abstract

Utilizing a variety of methodological approaches, diverse authentic empirical data from different clinical settings, and geographical and socio-cultural contexts, this volume has provided a groundbreaking examination of current healthcare communication research in Asian contexts. The (socio)linguistic approaches of the contributions have directed empirical attention to a range of high-priority societal topics in contemporary healthcare such as shared decision-making, patient-centredness, ethics in decision-making, familial dimensions of decision-making (Edmonds et al., this volume; Kawashima, this volume; Lim et al., this volume), stigma surrounding disease and illness and death and its relation to specific sociocultural contexts (Edmonds et al., this volume; King, this volume; Shipman and Zayts-Spence, this volume), commodification of health and illness (Luo and Zayts-Spence, this volume), and effective education for both pre-and post-qualification health professionals (Imafuku et al., this volume). Taken together, all the contributions highlight the centrality of language and communication for the effective medical care of patients and their families, and for medical education and practice.