It hurts more when it's you

摘要

A necessary quality for a good physician is the capacity to feel empathy. No matter how good a diagnostician, or how meticulously she practices, a physician without the capacity to feel and make evident genuine concern for her patient is lacking something indefinable but important. Physicians are like other humans in their varying capacity to evince empathy. However, there is one circumstance in which pretty much every physician will have no problem working up sincere concern: when she, herself, is the patient. Recently, I had the opportunity to sample the orthopedic surgical care at an institution frequently touted as ranking among the best in the United States. Commenting on the health care system, as I do with some frequency, is different than experiencing it. I felt my pain.