This special issue identifies three interrelated constructs--discourse, expertise, and the definition and management of risk--located in various healthcare sites: genetic counseling, nursing, and medical practice. The papers highlight the relationship between the management of risk situations and the nature of expertise displayed or achieved by practitioners and their patients/clients. The papers suggest that healthcare outcomes can be related closely to the quality of the discoursal encounters between professional practitioners and their patients/clients, and/or among professional practitioners themselves. Presenting differentiated goals and outcomes from a range of professional encounters, the research focuses on the resource of discoursal strategies drawn upon in the achievement of discoursal and professional goals by both professional and lay participants.