She couldn't have agreed any more with my sentiments.
Immediately, she alluded to a physician friend who teaches resident physicians at Yale New Haven Hospital.
What is novel in the latter's approach is this: she accurately diagnosed a crying need.
She discovered what was lacking in her students as they interviewed patients on their diurnal rounds.
She found that students were solely focused on the specific ailment/condition confronting them, be it cardiac, neurological or pulmonary related.
All the while, they perfunctorily observed and tested only the malfunctioning system with little or no curiosity about the state of mind of their subjects.
There was little or no attempt to make conversation.
(What ever happened to the traditional bedside manner when the physician prided himself in connecting with his patient? Asking questions and listening carefully to responses)
And so she told them they were only getting a limited picture of their patient--kind -of- like taking a close-up facial selfie while ignoring the rest of the whole picture: chest, hands, arms legs,etc.
So, she is now training her students to smile, look the patient in the eyes and take time to establish a relationship with the suffering patient through empathy to set the patient at ease.
She is thus training her charges to to observe, to test and to diagnose the entire patient.
My next articles in this series will further explore what medical schools are doing to address this very important issue of bringing back patient centered medicine.
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