Doctor-patient communication, what is the situation? an intervention study at a selected governmental hospital in Sharkia governorate

Background: Good doctor-patient communication has multiple impacts as higher compliance, satisfaction for both patients and clinicians and decrease in malpractice

Objective[s]: To assess physicians' perception towards importance of effective doctor-patient communication, as well as to measure their actual practice and skills of communication according to the items of the Kalamazoo checklist before and after training program

Methods: An intervention study was carried out at outpatient clinics in a general hospital at Zagazig district. A randomly selected sample of 198 physicians was chosen. The phases of the study were: 1-Assessing the level of doctor patient communication practice using the Kalamazoo Checklist. 2-Assessing physicians' perception towards effective communication, using a self-administered questionnaire. 3- Assessing the level of doctor patient communication practice after training program

Results: 46.5% of physicians highly perceived the importance of effective communication; with higher perception among females. The highest perceived items [more than 80%] were the effect of good communication on patients' compliance, patients' satisfaction and physicians' satisfaction. The intervention program significantly improved the physicians' communication skills

Conclusion: Less than half of the physicians highly perceived the importance of effective communication. Training can significantly impact communication skills

role of sp2, sp3 and SP4 in the trascriptional regulation of the promoter of nuclear encoded mitochondrial genes

The GC-box is an important transcriptional regulatory element present in the promoters of many mammalian genes, and is found in most, if not all, oxidative phosphorylation [OXPHOS] promoters. In the present study we examine the effects of three Spl family members [Sp2, Sp3, and Sp4] on the adenine nucleotide translocase 2, cytochrome cl, Fl-ATPase-subunit, and the mitochondria transcription factor [mtTFA] promoters in Drosophila SL2 cell line. Sp3, like Spl, strongly activates transcription all four promoters. SP4 stimulates, moderately, but Sp2 had no effect. In addition, Sp3 can, like Spl, inhibit transcription from the proximal promoter of the ANT2 gene through binding to the Cbox GC element. By contrast, Sp4 and Sp2 do not repress promoter activity. Furthermore, since Sp4 and Sp2 bind to the Cbox repression element on the ANT2 promoter, but do not repress transcription, inhibition of transcription cannot be explained by steric hindrance of pre-initiation complex assembly. These data suggest that different Spl family members differentially affect transcription from the OXPHOS promoters