In her 2006 New York Times article, Deborah Franklin asks the question:  how can you negotiate anything- when standing barefoot in a paper gown under the fluorescent lights at a hospital or medical clinic?  Franklin weighs in with medical sociologists to get advice for patients on how to best get the information they need from their medical providers.

To read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/health/15cons.html?_r=1&ref=health