A Doctor’s Touch

TED Talks are powerful and engaging mini-lectures about Ideas Worth Spreading. The Speaker bio for Abraham Verghese mentions that “in our era of the patient-as-data-point, Abraham Verghese believes in the old-fashioned physical exam, the bedside chat and the power of informed observation. In addition to being a medical doctor he’s now a professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford – where he is inspiring a new initiative. The New York Times notes: ” Art and medicine may seem disparate worlds, but Dr. Verghese insists that for him they are one. Doctors and writers are both collectors of stories.” Dr. Sherrod has always ascribed to a similar principle, placing high value on every single patient interaction from the initial examination or phone call to each and every treatment visit. We treat our patients the same way we would want to be treated. Human touch and communication have always been among our most valuable treatment tools.

In the following TED Talk video, Abraham Verghese discusses: “Modern Medicine is in danger of losing a powerful, old-fashioned tool: human touch. Physician and writer Abraham Verghese describes our strange new world where patients are merely data points, and calls for a return to the traditional one-on-one physical exam.