Table 3. Average duration (s), s.d. (in parentheses) and the percentage of the total consultation of patient and doctor time spent speaking in each ‘function’ category.

	Medical oncologists		Radiation oncologists		Patients of medical oncologists		Patients of radiation oncologists
Function category	Mean	%	Mean	%	Mean	%	Mean	%
Reveal intention	82.1 (61.8)	7.4	54.9 (41.6)	6.8	63.6 (80.7)	10.0	62.4 (101.5)	17.0
Advice	105.1 (66.5)	9.5	64.2 (56.0)	8.0	6.3 (12.2)	1.0	3.7 (6.2)	1.0
Questions	181.2 (34.3)	16.3	90.9 (19.4)	11.3	66.0 (19.8)	10.4	50.4 (20.1)	13.7
Label/judge/criticise	0.9 (4.2)	0.1	0.04 (0.3)	0.0	1.7 (5.3)	0.3	1.3 (5.7)	0.3
Express feelings/seek reassurance	2.1 (15.1)	0.2	0.9 (2.8)	0.1	15.8 (31.6)	2.5	9.0 (16.4)	2.5
Inform/educate	664.0 (371.1)	59.8	535.4 (240.2)	66.5	458.8 (250.2)	72.1	225.3 (149.4)	61.3
Actively support	26.3 (38.6)	2.4	24.5 (45.8)	3.0	0.4 (3.1)	0.1	0.3 (1.5)	0.1
Partnership build	35.9 (60.9)	3.2	25.0 (26.0)	3.1	23.6 (35.3)	3.7	15.4 (31.2)	4.2
Check patient understanding	12.5 (15.3)	1.1	9.1 (11.7)	1.1	0.1 (1.0)	0.0	0.03 (0.3)	0.0