How can doctors communicate information about risk more effectively?

In recent years risk has become a mature cross disciplinary topic of study, and during this time social science research into risk has experienced a rapid growth. Despite the existence of much relevant social science knowledge about risk, the extent to which such knowledge has been applied in the health field has been perhaps surprisingly limited. In 2001-2, two research councils (the Economic and Social Research Council and Medical Research Council) commended us to examine the potential for applying social science knowledge about risk to practical medical and health issues. We have used our findings to tackle the thorny issue of physician-patient communication about health risks.