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Researchers have for the first time systematically pinpointed and catalogued compassionate words and actions and doctor-patient conversations. Experts hope the latest study will help create a behavioral guideline for medical training and education.

"In health care, we believe in being compassionate but the reality is that many of us have a preference for technical and biomedical issues over establishing emotional ties," senior investigator Ronald Epstein, M.D., professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Oncology, and Nursing and director of the UR Center for Communication and Disparities Research, said in a news release.

The latest study involved 23 oncologists in the Rochester, NY area. The oncologists and their patients volunteered to be recorded during routine visits. Epstein and his team then analyzed the 49 audio-recorded encounters to find key observable markers of compassion.

Researchers noted that it was important to identify examples of three main elements of compassion: recognition of suffering, emotional resonance, and movement towards addressing suffering.

Researchers also looked at non-verbal communication like pauses or sighs at appropriate times, speech features and voice quality (tone, pitch, loudness) and other metaphorical language that suggested certain attitudes and meaning.

Researchers concluded that compassion unfolds over time, and doctors must try their best to stay with difficult discussions. These will open the door for patients to admit uncertainty and grieve the loss of having a normal life.

"It became apparent that compassion is not a quality of a single utterance but rather is made up of presence and engagement that suffuses and entire conversation," researchers concluded.

The findings are published in the journal Health Expectations.