What makes an excellent physician?
Finding a suitable physician is important to long term health. Working with physicians in a hospital during residency, working with various health professionals during my time teaching at Oregon Health Sciences University, working with patient's physicians during my practice life, and reading research of what makes a good doctor has helped me formulate an opinion. The most important factor to me is empathy. Are they trying to understand the feelings and thinking of the patient? Second, are they curious enough to read the scientific literature and understand the difference between a valid study and a biased tome? Third, do they take the time to listen thoroughly or do they depend on tests and technology? The best technology still resides between the ears of an excellent physician.
A doctor who cannot take a good history and a patient who cannot give one are in danger of giving and receiving bad treatment.
— Anonymous
In Paul Dudley White , Clues in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Disease (1956)
"There is only one cardinal rule: One must always listen to the patient. "
— Oliver Sacks, MD
A doctor who cannot take a good history and a patient who cannot give one are in danger of giving and receiving bad treatment.
— Anonymous
In Paul Dudley White , Clues in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Disease (1956)
"There is only one cardinal rule: One must always listen to the patient. "
— Oliver Sacks, MD