Objective: To present and develop "connectedness" as a linguistically based concept for research and teaching of the medical and psychiatric interview; and to illustrate how this concept may be operationalized for systematic study and use.
Methods: We describe the concept and its theoretical background, illustrate it with examples, and describe a basic rating scale for connectedness that can be used for research and teaching purposes.
Results: Connectedness is grounded in established concepts from the linguistic field of discourse analysis and is applicable to the study and teaching of medical and psychiatric interviews.
Conclusions: Connectedness is worthy of further study to enhance our understanding and our teaching of the interview.
Practice implications: Connectedness is a concept directly applicable to teaching and practice.