The relationship between a physician and a patient has been changing throughout the history, from the old, traditional, paternalistic approach to the modern approach which includes a patient - physician partnership. As the relationship changed the views on the importance of communication skills also changed. In modern medicine, communication skills are considered as one of the fundamental skills and mastering the communication is one of the obligations of a good medical practitioner. Two major components of communication are verbal and non-verbal. While verbal communication is used for the transmission of information, non-verbal gives additional meaning and conveys emotions and attitude. The importance of a successful delivery of both components in the daily work of physicians has been demonstrated in many studies. It is perhaps best demonstrated in the medical interview, where the quality of communication has proven impact on patient outcomes, patient satisfaction and the frequency of lawsuits. Communication is omnipresent in the everyday work of all health workers, in the interactions with patients, colleagues and medical team members. Since the effective interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork is proven to be an important factor in the final outcome of the treatment, especially in surgery and emergency medicine, in recent times a lot of attention is paid to their improvement. Many different programmes are introduced to numerous international and Croatian universities, a part of the medical schools and other health studies, but the ideal approach and effectiveness of various methods of education are still being debated.