Welcome to ISCOME

The process of communication is central to every aspect of health care. When clinicians communicate well with colleagues and patients, health outcomes are substantially enhanced. When communication is performed poorly, health outcomes and patients themselves are put at significant risk. In fact, ineffective communication has been identified as one of the root causes of harmful events in clinical care.

ISCOME is an interdisciplinary non-profit organization for scholars and practitioners who are interested in the study, teaching and application of all aspects of human behavior that occurs at the intersections between communication science and healthcare. At ISCOME, we consider communication as an essential safe practice criterion, and we focus on active research collaborations and interventions that establish an evidence-based bridge between these two disciplines, integrating the knowledge and practices from communication science and related fields into healthcare.

ISCOME began in 2013 as a small group of scholars from the United States and Europe in communication science, psychology, public health, law and other fields who dedicated themselves to establish a collaborative research agenda to improve the quality and safety of healthcare. Since then, ISCOME has sponsored numerous public conferences and research meetings. The diverse backgrounds of its executive board members illustrate the interdisciplinary heart of the organization. I invite you to read more about ISCOME’s vision, mission and objectives on this website.

ISCOME's expertise is available to everyone, and its diverse structure ensures the organization's relevance to a multitude of interest areas. Despite our special interests in quality and patient safety, ISCOME establishes a scientific platform for a wide-ranging interdisciplinary exchange that links the different aspects of human communication with common health care processes and structures, drawing on diverse theories and methodologies. One of the most pressing goals for my term as founding president of ISCOME is to bring together these various interdisciplinary perspectives and to support their dialogue and exchange with each other when tackling common problems at the intersections between communication science and medicine.

Our ISCOME Executive Board will be happy to help you and answer your inquiries about the organization, its activities, and its upcoming events. If you would like to contact me personally, you can e-mail me directly at ahannawa@iscome.org.

I hope you enjoy browsing our website!

Prof. Dr. Annegret Hannawa
Founding President
University of Lugano, Switzerland