The Clinical Interview for Relationship-Centered Care,

Edition 4 The Three Function Approach

Editors: By Steven A. Cole, MD, MA, Richard M. Frankel, PhD, MD (Hon) and Kelley M. Skeff, MD, PhD

Publication Date: 30 Jun 2026

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The interview is the cornerstone of accurate diagnosis and effective care. The Clinical Interview for Relationship-Centered Care (formerly The Medical Interview: The Three Function Approach) provides practical, real-world guidance from a relationship-centered, clinical perspective. The fully revised 4th Edition equips you to communicate effectively using the Three Function Approach—Connect, Co-construct, and Collaborate—helping you hone foundational interviewing skills as well as advanced skills for challenging situations. Ideal for early learners as well as experienced healthcare professionals, this highly readable text helps you learn and master straightforward concepts, microskills, and skill-sets you need to provide optimal care for every patient.

Key Features

Describes three core functions of the clinical interview—connect, co-construct the illness narrative, and collaborate for care—with updated evidence-base to facilitate relationship-centered care throughout day-to-day practice
Introduces three “meta-skills”—connect to self in context, connect with values, and connect non-verbally—higher-order skills to facilitate learning and clinical implementation
Provides a new biopsychosocial tool, “the three pillars,” for co-constructing the clinical narrative: chronology of the present illness, ecology of the illness, and affirmation of strengths and resources
Includes a new section on Professional Identity Formation, with research and clinical perspectives, and related chapters on Mindfulness, Use of Self, and Approach to Patient/Family and Student Concerns—all designed to help clinicians and educators understand transformative role transitions that mature during a practice lifetime
Integrates Motivational Interviewing and Health Coaching with new chapters on Brief Action Planning (BAP), BAP-MI (Advanced Skills), and the Spirit of Motivational Interviewing
Adds chapters on advanced topics and applications such as using digital technology (computers and virtual visits), presentation and documentation, language and cultural barriers, health literacy, elderly patients, mitigating burnout, team-based care, and applications across health systems
Addresses challenges of chronic and life-limiting illness with new chapters on Optimizing Three Function Presence Over Time, Sharing Difficult News While Exploring Hope, and Collaborating for Care in Discussing Limitations of Treatment
An eBook version is included with purchase. The eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references, with the ability to search, customize your content, make notes and highlights, and have content read aloud

About the author

By Steven A. Cole, MD, MA, Professor of Psychiatry - Emeritus, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and Clinical Professor of Scientific Education and Psychiatry, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Stony Brook, New York; Richard M. Frankel, PhD, MD (Hon), Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics, Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana and Kelley M. Skeff, MD, PhD, George DeForest Barnett Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Division of Primary Care & Population Health, Palo Alto, California, USA

Section 1 Overview: Organization, Background, and Rationale
1.Organization of the Text
2.Background: Interviews are Everywhere - A Compressed History of the Clinical Interview
3.Rationale: A Unified Model of The Clinical Interview for Relationship-Centered Care

Section 2 The Three Functions
4.Function One: Connect
5.Function Two: Co-Construct the Narrative
6.Function Three: Collaborate for Care (Part I)
7.Function Three: Collaborate for Care (Part II) - Brief Action Planning

Section 3 Professional Identity Formation
8.The Three Function Approach to Professional Identity Formation in Healthcare Education and Clinical Care
9.Mindfulness: A Central Quality for Clinical Presence in the Three Function Approach
10.Use of the Self in Clinical Care
11.The Three Function Approach to Patient/Family and Student Concerns

Section 4 Structure of the Interview
12.Overview and Opening: Invest in the Beginning
13.History of the Present Illness: Three Pillars
14.Past Medical History
15.Family History
16.Patient Pro¿le and Social History
17.Review of Systems
18.Closing the Interview: Summarize with Affirmations of Connection and Continuity

Section 5 Digital Technology, Documentation, and Presentation
19.The Three Function Approach to Computer Use and Virtual Visits
20.Documentation and Presentation

Section 6 Advanced Applications
21.The Three Function Approach to Nonverbal Communication
22.Using Motivational Interviewing and Brief Action Planning for Adopting and Maintaining Positive Health Behaviors
23.BAP-MI: A Novel Stepped-Care Integration of Brief Action Planning and Motivational Interviewing to Optimize Outcomes
24.What is the Spirit of Motivational Interviewing and Why is it Relevant to the Three Function Approach?
25.BAP-MI in the Three Function Approach: A Stepped-Care Model for Teaching, Learning, and Using Motivational Interviewing and Coaching in Healthcare
26.Cultural Considerations in the Care of the Patient: The Three Function Approach
27.Health Literacy and the Three Function Approach
28.Interviewing Older Adults: The Three Function Approach
29.The Three Function Approach to the Family Interview
30.The Three Function Approach to Interviewing Patients with Unhealthy Substance Use
31.The Three Function Approach to Interviewing the Patient Experiencing Psychosis

Section 7 Chronic and Life-Limiting Illness
32.Optimizing Three Function Presence Over Time: Addressing Stresses and Challenges of Chronic Illness
33.Clinical Interviewing and Chronic Illness: A Three Function Approach
34.Sharing Difficult News While Exploring Hope: The PSC Application of the Three-Function Model
35.Collaborating for Care in Discussing Limitations of Treatment

Section 8 The Three Function Approach in Systems and Society
36.The Three Function Approach to Team-Based Care
37.Acceptance and Cultural Humility in Health Care: Toward Healing and Solutions through a Three Function Understanding
38.Mitigating Burnout Using the Three Function Approach to Relationship-Centered Care: Application in Practice
39.Self, System, and Society: Skills and Mindsets that Help Systems Flourish

Appendices
Appendix A Patient Care Triangles
Appendix B Tables of Skills

Index

Book Reviews

Review of the previous edition:
"The three function model is a profound bedrock to provide footing for a medical communication course. It is simple at its most basic level and applicable to any discipline or subspecialty a young trainee would decide to pursue. Thus, it is widely applicable to medical school educators…the model is equally applicable to graduate and post graduate level educators and clinicians who want to advance their skills. There are few medical texts out there that can have such wide appeal and effectiveness. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to any medical educator who has a need to both learn and teach patient-physician communication." --Joseph S. Weiner, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Medicine, Hofstra North Shore LIJ School of Medicine

"In over 20 years of teaching interviewing skills to medical students I have consistently relied on The Medical Interview: The Three Function Approach as a key resource. The combination of humanism, intellectually rigorous biopsychosocial perspective, and clinical pragmatism makes it a uniquely relevant and accessible text. Students have no trouble grasping and applying the three-function structure as a tool for observing, critiquing and improving interview skills in themselves and their peers during our observed interview sessions. The introduction of motivational interviewing concepts in the third edition is a welcome addition." --Roy M. Stein, M.D., Associate Professor, Duke University School of Medicine

ISBN: 9780323829410

Page Count: 520

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Medical, nursing, and allied health trainees, faculty, and clinicians