EMPATHY AND COMPASSION

Modern health care is fueled by technology and by steady progress in areas like precision medicine, molecular imaging, neurobiology and cognitive science. But more fundamentally, healthcare is about people, about our diverse natures and about our ability to understand, sympathize and support each other and ourselves... We then use our research to alter neural circuits and integrate social determinants from existing programs. This is critical because a physician's ability to engage with empathy demonstrably influences how a patient feels during and after a visit - good communication is as intrinsic to accurate diagnosis as the most sophisticated instrument or test, and crucial to ensuring optimal outcomes. And on the other side of the stethoscope, physician burnout, depression and suicide have become national health crises. Physicians need help to heal themselves... T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

Primary location: La Jolla United States