When Betsy Sleath needs an example of the importance of effective communication between a physician and a patient, she only has to point to the time she had an allergic reaction that caused her to keep breaking badly out in hives.

Betsy Sleath, PhD Professor Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy Research Interests Provider-patient communication, adherence, racial and ethnic health disparities.

“I was afraid I was going to go into anaphylaxis; I kept swelling up,” she says. “First I went to a primary care doctor who wasn’t my usual primary care doctor, and that wasn’t very helpful. Then I went to an allergist who did exactly what he should’ve done. He explained everything. Then he gave me a written information sheet that further explained it. Then he had me demonstrate how I would use an EpiPen if I was going into anaphylaxis. He truly made sure that patients understood. Just imagine if you were going into anaphylaxis and you are trying to use your EpiPen and you used it wrong.”

Sleath, a professor in the UNC School of Pharmacy, is doing research that could help spawn more effective communication between patients and their heath-care providers. Her work examines the impact that doctor-patient communication has on adherence to medication, mental health, and quality of life. Her current research focuses on four groups: children with asthma, rheumatoid arthritis patients, Latino patients, and glaucoma patients.

“In all my research, my main goal is hoping that the study will help patients somehow, to help them be able to better communicate with their providers or have the providers better communicate with them, to help show that maybe we aren’t educating patients to the best that we can, and that we need to think about how to develop education in the most effective way,” says Sleath, who joined the School’s Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy in 1995.

Click on the links below to read about various aspects of Sleath’s research.

Children with Asthma		Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients		Glaucoma Studies		Health-Care Use by Latinos