A renowned diagnostician shares stories of his patients and explores the importance of the human factor in medicine. In The Art of Medicine, Toronto Western Hospital’s internist Dr. Herbert Ho Ping Kong draws on his vast dossier of personal cases and five decades as a clinician to examine the core principles of a patient-centered approach to diagnosis and treatment. While HPK, as he is fondly known, recognizes and applauds the many invaluable innovations in medical technology, he makes the point that as disease and its management grow increasingly complex, physicians must learn to develop an arsenal of more basic skills, actively using the arts of seeing, hearing, palpation, empathy, and advocacy to provide a more humane and holistic form of care. Aimed at medical practitioners, aspiring doctors, or anyone interested in health and medicine, this book also contains interviews with more than a dozen of HPK’s patients, as well as short essays that explore the thinking of his professional colleagues on the art of medicine.

Presents over 2,000 years of medical illustrations, including paintings, artifacts, drawings, prints, and extracts from manuscripts and manuals.

Presents unique and groundbreaking perspectives on communication in the practice of everyday healthcare - increasing patient safety and literacy. This life skills text educates all individuals, both those within healthcare professions as well as society in general, as every human being will eventually interface with the healthcare system.

A handy guide to tackling difficult patient and professional interactions with confidence and compassion In this age of increasing reliance on technology, it is essential that the fundamentals of compassion and good communication—the art of patient care—remain at the heart of health care. This clear, concise guide to professional communication strategies helps nurses and other health care clinicians to build effective patient relationships and navigate a wide variety of difficult patient and professional interactions. Written by a practicing psychotherapist who has devoted nearly 30 years of study to clinician—patient relationships, the book tackles such complex issues as dealing with demanding patients, maintaining professional boundaries, overcoming biases and stereotypes, managing clinician emotions, communicating bad news, challenging a colleague’s clinical opinion, and other common scenarios. The book guides the reader through a conceptual framework for building effective relationships that is based on the principles of mindfulness. These principles are embedded in discussions of the fundamental elements of interpersonal effectiveness, such as hope, empathy, and listening. Chapters apply mindfulness principles to specific challenging situations with concrete examples that describe effective clinical behaviors as well as situations depicting pitfalls that may impede compassionate care. From a focus on everyday manners in difficult situations to beneficial approaches with challenging populations, the guide helps health care professionals confidently resolve common problems. Brief, to-the-point chapters help clinicians channel their clinical knowledge and good intentions into caring behaviors that allow the patient to more fully experience empathy and compassion. With the guiding theme of “using words as precision instruments,” this is a resource that will be referred to again and again. Key Features: • Helps health care professionals and nurses communicate effectively in challenging clinical and professional situations • Uses the principles of mindfulness to build satisfying relationships and resolve problems • Addresses such difficult issues as demanding patients, maintaining boundaries, overcoming biases, managing clinician emotions, and much more • Provides special tips for communicating with family members and caregivers • Authored by a practicing psychotherapist specializing in clinician—patient relationships for nearly 30 years

This book and its companion, Skills for Communicating with Patients, Second Edition, provide a comprehensive approach to improving communication in medicine. Fully updated and revised, and greatly expanded, this new edition examines how to construct a skills curricular at all levels of medical education and across specialties, documents the individuals skills that form the core content of communication skills teaching programmes, and explores in depth the specific teaching, learning and assessment methods that are currently used within medical education. Since their publication, the first edition of this book and its companionSkills for Communicating with Patients, have become standards texts in teaching communication skills throughout the world, 'the first entirely evidence-based textbooks on medical interviewing. It is essential reading for course organizers, those who teach or model communication skills, and program administrators.

Part of suffering from an illness is the fear of not knowing what might happen. One needs information about the illness, about treatments, and about the outcome. Patients appreciate when their autonomy is respected, and they are given options to choose from. But for them to find the right choice is often like looking in the dark to find a path they never took before. No one is in a better position than their doctor to shed light on the paths and to guide them for the best choice to make. This book describes what a patient needs to know and what the doctor needs to communicate to enable the patient to make choices that are rational, based on medical standards, and can best lead to recovery. Such communication takes time, can be arduous, yet it is a doctor's duty and is essential for a harmonious doctor-patient relationship.

This book focuses on uncovering and challenging the many myths and fixed images about communication and healing. It hopes to raise awareness, and stimulate, provoke, and offer alternative perspectives that will lead healthcare practitioners to communicate differently with their patients.

The art of good communication is an essential skill that every healthcare professional must master in this increasingly demanding and challenging healthcare climate.From medical, nursing and allied health students to experienced doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals, the authors of The Bedside Communication Handbook — with more than 20 years of teaching 'Clinical Communication' — present common and challenging communication scenarios and share important principles and useful phrases which can be used to help busy healthcare professionals communicate better with patients and their relatives.This is probably the only such book set in an Asian context. It will contain practical tips and model statements that would help to guide the readers in improving their communication skills and preventing a communication faux pas.