Is Doctor Empathy the Best Rx?

Empathy is a learned skill that improves the quality of care.

ByABC News
January 21, 2011, 1:34 PM

Jan. 24, 2011— -- Erin Mitchell has met her share of doctors. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 8, Mitchell, now 40, visits at least three times a year to stay on top of her condition.

"There are some doctors who act like patients exist only to be fixed," said Mitchell, who has "fired" more than one doctor for treating her like a case instead of a person.

Mitchell works in public relations in St. Petersburg, Fla., which keeps her on her toes and leaves her little time to think about blood glucose and insulin more than she needs to. So when one doctor suggested changing her treatment schedule from twice daily to every two hours, he just didn't get it, she said.

"I can't drop everything every two hours to test my blood and inject insulin," Mitchell said. "Not all patients are the same, and not all treatments are going to be feasible for a particular person because of other things in their life."

The ability to empathize with a patient not only makes doctors more likeable but improves the quality of care they provide, according to a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. And as with knowing what test to run or what treatment to prescribe, empathy is a skill doctors have to learn, some doctors say.

"Currently, there is insufficient emphasis and time apportioned to teaching the empathic response in medical school, postgraduate training and continuing medical education," wrote Dr. Robert Buckman of the University of Toronto, and colleagues.

Medical training has historically emphasized understanding diseases rather than patients. But some medical schools in the United States are changing their game to produce more empathetic doctors.

"I think all of us as doctors should understand that our main role is to not just help people, but to really understand them and to have every encounter with a patient be something they leave feeling better," said Dr. Steven Abramson, senior vice president and vice dean for education, faculty and academic affairs at New York University's Langone Medical Center.

"In the sufferer, let me see only the human being," said Abramson, quoting the prayer of Maimonides; a pledge similar to the Hippocratic oath.