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Part of
A Pragmatic Agenda for Healthcare: Fostering inclusion and active participation through shared understanding
Edited by Sarah Bigi and Maria Grazia Rossi
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 338] 2023
► pp. 43–74

Chapter 2
Microanalysis of Clinical Interaction (MCI)

| Akershus University Hospital
| University of Victoria
| University of Oslo

A pragmatic agenda for clinical communication must derive sound practice recommendations based on investigations of actual clinical practice rather than idealized practice. While it is reasonable to recommend that clinicians foster the inclusion and active participation of their patients, if such recommendations are based on top-down ideals rather than a sound, bottom-up empirical base, they are vulnerable to implementation challenges.

This chapter introduces microanalysis of clinical interaction (MCI), which uses videorecorded consultations between clinicians and patients to reveal authentic communicative practice in interaction. We will briefly describe its history, unique features and affordances, and examples from studies that have applied it. We then focus on its potential utility for explicating how to accomplish patients’ inclusion and active participation in interaction.

Keywords: interaction analysis, clinical communication, video analysis, microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • Value of doing video analysis in clinical practice
    • Short precis of Microanalysis of Clinical Interaction (MCI)
    • Positioning Microanalysis of Clinical Interaction with other methodological approaches
    • Chapter outline
  • 2.Historical background of Microanalysis of Clinical Interaction
    • Early roots of pragmatics of human communication
    • Pragmatics of human communication to microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue
      • Microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue to microanalysis of clinical interaction
    • Comparing MFD and MCI
    • Essential elements of MCI
  • 3.Method
    • Data
    • Data preparation
    • Preparation
      • Creating an inventory of material
      • Transcribing speech, noting initial impressions
      • Keeping the analysis traceable
    • Analytical activities
    • Beginning the coding manual with rationale and research questions
    • Doing the microanalysis
    • Deciding whether an entry point is useful
    • Identifying the phenomenon in specific behaviours
    • Characterizing the specific behaviours
    • An example of a moment of analysis using ELAN
    • Dissemination: Transforming analysis into meaningful results
    • Reporting definitions and examples
    • Summarizing frequencies of the phenomena
    • Summarizing qualitative characteristics of the phenomena
    • Follow up analyses
  • 4.A research agenda for fostering inclusion and active patient participation
  • 5.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.338.02ger
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