Thursday, February 3, 2011

Worth a read: the doctor-patient relationship

Now that I'm back in school doing my prerequisites for medical school, I'm more interested than ever in health news, particularly when it comes to the way physicians interact with the people they treat. (A classmate and I are co-chairing a focus group on the doctor-patient relationship in my postbac premed program.) This story about the ways in which medical schools are changing their curricula to encourage future doctors to consider the whole patient caught my eye. I especially like the idea that focusing on relating to patients as human beings by adding humanities classes to med school isn't a nice touchy-feely bonus; it's a key part of medical training.