Doctors' empathy and cancer

A study of doctors' communication with their cancer patients found that physicians come short, on average, of listening well, and understanding, their patients' emotions. The research by Duke Medical School Professor James A. Tulsky is described in a recent feature New York Times article, "For Cancer Patients, Empathy Goes a Long Way." The study has several interesting findings, suggesting a possibility of a vicious cycle in the doctor-patient relationship. That is, physicians rarely engage their patients when they try to talk about their emotions, and the patients in turn tend to bring up their emotions surprisingly rarely. The article argues that this is relevant not only for quality of life but also for improving the odds that patients would remain compliant to their, often-long and difficult, course of therapy, with potential improvements in final treatment outcomes.