Objectives　Toexplorethe effect of the Balint group on improving the empathy and doctor-patient communication skills among medical students in clinical practice. Methods　We investigated 500 clinicalmedicalstudentsin fourth grade by JSE-HP and SEGUE framework scalein Shanghai Jiao Tong uni-versity school of medicine between July 2016 and December 2016. 60 students with insufficientempathy and doctor-patient communication skills were selected randomly. These students were thanrandomly divided into the Balint group (experimental group) and the routine clinical practice group(control group). The experimen-tal group participated inthe Balint group activitiesin addition to routine clinical practice

whilethe control group only participated in routine clinical practice. After 20 weeks of the Balintgroup intervention

the two groups were invited to assess theempathy and doctor-patient communication skills again to analyze the effect of the Balintgroup on improving the empathy and doctor-patient communication ability among intern students. The evaluation result was analyzed by SPSS 22.0 software. Data comparison was conducted using pair t test

independent sample t test and ?字2 testing. Results　There were no statistically significant differ-ences in age

sex

whether only child or class leader and previous year theoretical exam scoresbetween the two groups (all P>0.05). For empathy

there was no statistically significant difference in terms of opinion

emotional care

empathy

and total scorebefore the routine clinical practicebetween the two groups (P>0.05) and they all improvedsignificantly after the routine clinical practice (all P<0.05). But the experimental group had higher scoresin all above scalesthan the control group (all P<0.05). For communication skills with patients

there were no statistically significant differencesbetween the two groupsin communication initiation

infor-mation collection

understanding of patients

information giving

end questioning

and SEGUE scoresbefore the routine clinical practice (all P>0.05)

and they allimprovedsignificantly in all above 5 scales after the routine clinical practice (all P<0.05). While except for understanding of patients

the experimental group had higher gains in other scales than the control group (all P<0.05). Conclusion　Use of the Barring group ac-tivities on the basis of routine clinical practice canimprove the empathy andthedoctor-patientcommunication skills in medical students.