Synchronous communication has several advantages. It allows for interaction to clarify confusion, elicit information, and question assumptions. It allows the communicator to highlight key information and use verbal cues, nonverbal cues, or both to identify medically unstable patients and provide a "gestalt" image. However, synchronous communication has several disadvantages. Participants must find a time and place to meet. This communication can be in-terruptive; is susceptible to interruption and distractions; is not durable; is subject to distortion when passed through several clinicians (eg, "the game of broken telephone"); and may be vulnerable to hierarchy, interpersonal conflict, and language or social barriers.
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