What are some of the barriers that could impede medical students and residents from becoming caring doctors?
There are many barriers. First of all, the seduction of new technology is so captivating, so appealing, that there is a perception that that’s what medicine is: just a matter of getting the right answer and doing the right thing. That is a superficial view of what the fundamental values of medicine are all about. We have become so enamored of the technology that we tend to forget the basic commitment the physicians must have to the patient-doctor relationship. The commercialism that’s so common in medicine now also is a barrier to these core values. Medicine is viewed by many outside the profession and, unfortunately, by many inside the profession as just another business. There is a tendency to view interactions between doctor and patient [as] analogous to a vendor and a customer, rather than a doctor and a patient receiving compassionate care. Commercialism is an ethic that is fundamentally at odds with the profession. Q: Do you feel like this shortcoming is changing with the work th
