Added: 5 months ago
From: TEDtalksDirector
Views: 33,449
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:

All Comments (152)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • she probably went to MD anderson

  • maybe this guy has reiki ability

  • we strive to be humans in an age where we are surrounded by machines - extending our human touch to a fellow human in sickness and in pain...

  • so inspiring~ makes me feel soo touched. :) like patch adam.

  • Also the touch is an art not every doctor can do it unfortunately

  • I liked highlights you mentioned but sometime patients don't like to be touched !!

  • he's my uncle!

  • Amazing video.

  • This was very interesting.

  • one should however remember that this idea is as utopian today as it was the norm 100 years ago, when doctors were not overwhelmed by patients. given the amount of knowledge we have acquired even in the past 20 years, added to the exponential population growth, such approaches are most of the time impossible. we should rather learn how to balance out the "oldschool" with the new, and adapt, as one comment states below

  • Every doctor in America should be required to watch this !

  • He talks about the power of touch missing from medicine, I think its just those in allopathic medicine who don't have the ability. I'm curious to see if he knows that osteopathic medicine, the equal alternative to allopathic, already uses this "power of touch" to heal the pain and suffering of others. Osteopaths are trained to examine and heal using hands and its incorporated into their practice...

  • My specialization is in cultural awareness, sensitivity and competency in health care so this piece was very close to my heart. There has been an abundance of research in this area. It is only recent that there has there been active participation by the medical schools and the community of practice to consider how individual cultural preferences influence the patient centered experience. The physician who takes the time to listen and understand a patient's perspective = PRICELESS

  • An addendum to the message, from the patient to the physician, is to please learn from this, find something new, and make the future better for someone else whom might not otherwise benefit for the lack of that knowledge. And I don't mean just the physical diagnosis and treatment.

  • In my medical school in Croatia rounds still look like the ones from dr. Verghese's student days. I always thought that to be a harsh practice for the pacients, listening about his disease and all possible diagnosees and prognosees. But now I see that is not the case. Thank you dr. Verghese, you opened up my views.

  • wonderful.discovered the power of touch.

  • I think if a doctor asked me to strip, i'd feel that there was some kindof weird power interplay going on here.

    I'm not trusting enough of my doctors for the "get naked coz i'm the doctor" kindof ritual, and honestly i don't think i should be. Maybe i just think my doctors arn't very impressive. *shrug*

  • I'm a med student, this video is just as important as my books.

  • I will be with you as long as you can pay me.

  • arab doctors are the best !

  • @Threeejw dr. verghese's parents are from Kerala, India. He is not an Arab.

  • @Threeejw I'm not sure if you're trying to be offensive or what. If i said "white doctors are the best", it would be seen as a racist thing to say, no?

  • Exceptional. A doctor of the very highest calibre.

  • I've always been quite healthy and I probably go to a medical doctor about once every ten years - I hope next time I get someone like this.

  • first he says that the a doctor's touch (physical exam) is a powerful tool in making diagnoses and to "touch, comfort, diagnose, and bring about treatment". however his closing anecdote actually neglects the clinical importance of the exam ("nothing to do with detecting rails in the lungs or finding the gallop of heart failure") and emphasizes only the emotional/ethical aspect of it

  • @ronnyweasle It's both.

    And likely the closing anecdote is an example of how the patient's innate knowledge of how powerful the doctor's touch is, enables some placebo powers from the ritual itself.

  • What a human being this is and how deep he sees into the heart of a suffering person.

  • Hmm... House...? :P I see a lot of Gregory House in this.... interesting...

  • New patient visit of 45 minutes?!?! I'm a nurse and I've never even been in the same room with a doctor for 45 minutes...

  • I can not take off my eyes of his huge head XD

    But all jokes a side, the man is awesome!

  • i'm a medical student and that is so much very freaking inspiring.....i'll try to adapt these rituals ^^

  • @saudisandawy

    Adapt or adopt?

  • @ChielScape

    loool...adOpt ... u smart glutius maximus

  • What crap, he places human intuition as if it's some panacea for what ails us and relates a story about a Doctor knowing the history of a woman that is simply impossible in today's modern age. He needs to realize that in a world of 7 billion people it is simply impossible to go back to those old days (which is more nostalgia than truth) and that this call to return to them is infeasible if we want to tend to the sick today.

  • @FTLNewsFeed

    You might be partially right, but you're also partially wrong.

    It isn't merely in the sake of nostalgia, the basics of history taking, inspection and manual investigations cover a whole lot than you think.

    No doubt final diagnoses need to be confirmed by accurate laboratory and instrumental investigations, but do not undermine the importance and power of a doctor's touch.

    Now, doctors are way too "busy" to give their previous time to those who need it the most - Patients

  • @FTLNewsFeed being a medical student myself, I can see that doctors nowadays care less about the patients. history taking and physical examinations is one important aspect to build rapport with the patient. you dont need a series of sophisticated test to find out what is happening, most of the time we just need to ask and discover and interpret from what we find, with our own senses.

  • 0:15

  • Wow, why are people so narky about skipping a damn fifteen second clip? You'd think, watching these types of videos, you'd be able to cope with that.

  • very good

  • It makes you think what things we do now in medicine that will be considered absurd in 20 or 30 years or even longer.

  • @ZombieX13 most of it.

  • great speech,

    my friend's doctor didn't even tell her how to use the feeding tube he just put in. For 3 weeks, she didn't know she suppose to clean it and use it. She lost 30 lb by eating liquid food. Not until her first chemo consultation, that doctor send nurse to her house that day to show her how to use the feeding tube.

    Doctors today are over book. While we wait hrs, only able to talk to them for 10 to 15 minutes.

  • i learned alot from Scrubs

  • and well there's NHS, so well thanks ted for the fantastic idea, not happening

  • He just wants to feel titties.

  • Really inspiring

  • Awesome talk, I doubted that I would watch till the end though because of the length, but glad I did, well I had no choice really, it was a great talk.

  • wow this is a great idea

  • I have just qualified as a nurse.

    In England hospital consultants are abrupt, snappy, and patients are an irritation between spending time with their mates on the golf course and their lucrative medicolegal work.

    My father lay dying in hospital. The doctor came in already angry, she bodged around roughly, couldn't find a vein then spoke rudely to my elderly mum and me.

    We wept together over my poor father's bed. How could she be so cruel. I will never forget her.

  • @lovelittlecats I am sorry about that, i know how the hospital staff can be i lost my mum and they were obnoxious i hope you let her know how she made you feel and maybe put out a complain or write about her on a blog. Such people need to know their job isn't a free power card for them to act however they want to.

  • Doctor gropey.

  • The Jewish Patch Adams

    

  • "...i will never abandon you, i will see you through to the end."

    kinda makes one want to be an MD!

  • He sounds like an amazing doctor. HMOs are killing his kind.

  • Quite possibly the most amazing TEDtalk I've seen. And he did it with only his words. Amazing.

  • that guy looks like a mixture of red foreman and daniel craig

  • Good talk! Fuck the TED intro!

  • wonderful...........

  • can you give this speech to my neurologist please

  • @JulieAubrey1 why don't you show him/her the video? that will make her/him think about it

  • @JulieAubrey1 Share this link with him ASAP :)

  • People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

  • It's true. We have extraordinary machines these days. None of which can match the subtlety and richness of a trained physician's senses. It's not just ritual. My brother's doctor did something he had never seen before. He sniffed his urine sample. Sounds a bit gross - but he completely nailed my brother's kidney infection before even sending the sample to the lab.

  • just beautiful ... wish all the doctors felt and understood their patients the way Abraham Verghese does :]

  • ROFL at the shortcut to 15 seconds being voted up. I used to do it manually to avoid that annoyingly-loud intro music, I see everyone else was too, lol.

  • This is the type of Doctor that we all long for, but that doesn't exist.

  • The difference between him and other docs? He really really cares!

  • @Jarocho2003

    No, you are wrong! The difference between him and other docs is that he seems to take the time he needs with each patient.

    Many docs are chronically flooded with too much work, so they just try to get their job done in one piece

  • @WPMA If he's on TED and doing all those things to improve his patient/doctor relationship then he must be more deeply involve than your typical doctor. Whether someone is busy or not, he has the opportunity to get better at his or her job, yet you are using the "not having enough" as an excuse for them to provide a superior service, which is bullshit. Even fast food employees have better manners than some doctors do.

  • @Jarocho2003

    bad manners..oh yes, you are right. But how do you think - if you can finally decide to do that at all - why those people (strange enough you call them "your doctors" ?!?) behave the way they do?

    They are human beings too - not just "service providers". People who say that do not deserve good treatment.

  • @WPMA EVERY job out there has people who are going to give you a hard time (do you even work?), but that doesn't mean you don't try to get better!

  • you had me at conan doyle. and then it got better!

  • There is far more going on in compassionate human touch than we have yet measured. From a doctor to a patient it is a gesture of care and a gift of support and nurture and a demonstration of willingness to cure. Bedside manner is also hugely under-rated and becoming less important in medicine. For some doctors, patients are reduced to being a collection of symptoms that need to be soved like a puzzle, rather than feeling human beings who may be vulnerable and afraid.

  • Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

  • I don't know how he does it, dealing with peoples lives, he lives with the tragedy and triumphs of the human

  • This was so awesome speach. Wished my doc was like him.

  • YOU ARE A GREAT MAN.

    this is very true indeed

  • apathy is a product of socialism, when only community matters the individual dose not.

  • @atlaspressed what? Socialism is the eventuality of empathy

  • @atlaspressed In capitalism you only count if you've got money; if you don't, you are a non-entity.

  • @atlaspressed In capitalism you only count if you've got money; if you don't, you are a non-entity.

  • these are not european concepts(inventions), they were used 1000's of years ago in Afrika in ancient Kemet

  • its safe to say that this guy loves tits!

  • @solojam Well... Let's just wait when you are about to leave this world and your doctor just don't even give a shit about you. Then you know what "this guy" means. Good luck.

  • @ahantu he still loves tits!

  • @solojam I think it's you who love tits since you keep thinking about it ?

  • Not very entertaining. lol.

  • they went from bed to bed xD good speech btw

  • Much of Silicon Valley has lost its humanity. A caring carpenter, and an insightful doctor, have little value, really. I had to remove just as my best friend and his family; he was a family doctor, and I do my own custom cabinet work.

    Home Depot mindsets.

  • I felt that , yo.

  • I'm not sure medicine has been dehumanized as he portray it, it was a lot colder in the 50's for instance, it just got more technical and specialized recently, and general practitioners, the palpators, are on their way out

  • Dear TED,

    Please take off the header and tail. They're loud, annoying and useless.

    Thumbs up if you agree.

  • @clearmenser Why? It's a beautiful song.

  • amazing message

  • Remarkable talk and so good to see that there are physicians out there who care about the patient as a human being. Here in Sydney, where I live, medical centres are full of doctors that "process" patients like cattle. The GP I used to go to barely even let you finish explaining your symptoms before he was filling out the prescription.

  • I remember when I twisted my ancle and busted my knee... the doctor never touch them, he just asked were it hurt and proscribed the medications. Later, I add to get physical therapy and massages to put everything wright.

  • i just want a doctor with hand writing i can read!

  • Very beautiful talk ..... well articulated and clear in its message

  • "they didnt touch my breasts :(" what horrible people

  • @tylerkhendrickson It's not about the breast. It's about "The doctor didn't seem to show s/he care. I feel so alone and distance."

  • yeeeeee touch that breast mass

  • A remarkable speech! I am teary in the coffee shop where I am listening to this.

  • Fantastic message. Our family doctor barely even looks at you if you go see him. It's like he doesnt even care to help you get better or are dying.

    Also, what's up with that top comment? Jeez! haha.

  • Bravo! Spot-on! Thank you!

    ---Ken

  • I'm not even 2 minutes in and he's basically saying it's the doctors fault for not noticing the breast tumors before. I don't know about America, but in Canada, women are encouraged to do a self breast exam every month and if anything is found to see a doctor. :/ If in the previous years that she went to a hospital, her symptoms didn't warrant an CT scan then why would they waste her money and their time on performing it?

  • @hardleecure How 'bout watching the whole fuckin talk before commenting? Some of these things tend to clear up.

  • @hardleecure Well, you've got a point there.

  • It sounds like he is saying the best treatment is compassion and remembering a doctors duty is to shower compassion. How compassion or more so Love can bring well being to the ill. "From love, bitter becomes sweet, From love, thorns become flowers, From love, vinegar becomes wine, From love, fire becomes light, From love, devil becomes angel, From love, sorrow becomes joy, From love, sickness becomes health, From love, fury becomes mercy, From love, dead becomes alive,"- Rumi

  • So basically he's talking about the importance of building rapport with the patient by means of physical examination. This is all very well and good, but very few doctors have the luxury of time to do so.

  • @divicool72 Then there is something wrong with the system they are working in . the doctors job should be to give the best care to each person they see not to look at the most patients they can see in a day.

  • @Loki95531 This is true. We know that lots of countries (well at least Australia, where I live) have problems with overcrowded public health systems...But that's not really something one individual can change. So for the time being, if you're a GP in a busy practice....then you may not have a choice but to see 50 patients a day, because otherwise people miss out on healthcare altogether.

  • I was also influenced by a woman who wanted me to touch her breasts.

  • I would touch her breast!

  • Dr. House would hate this video.

    And Dr. Wilson would have fantastic buttsecks with this guy.

    Thumbs up.

  • 11:00 When you start about there. 100% true. Hit me emotionally, somewhat. Imagine going into a doctor and re-explaining your symptoms, and having it end just the same. Where you go hope feeling less hope than when you actually went. As if one notch of hope just went "poof". It leads to an existentialist idea of "infinite distress", an uncertainty that beckons an individual to give up as "empirically", it just doesn't seem like you'll receive help. A repeated test that has shown its results.

  • thats a real doctor, 5*s

  • @dobe762 IF ONLY MY DOCTOR WAS LIKE THIS!

  • Comment removed

  • Personally, I don't think the idea stated in the video is based solely on "time" and "ambition" to be a good doctor. That is what makes it exist nowadays, although it is something that could replace current methodologies. For example, by dedicating some time asking about the patients past and taking it into consideration. Such things, which overlooked, yield large benefits. Weed out, or allude to possibilities. They give the Abduction needed to do actual tests, which is absolutely logical.

  • This is exactly why preventative care is a waste of time and money. The doctors don't even do their jobs.

  • This is exactly why preventative care is a waste of time and money. The doctors don't even do their jobs. 

  • Dont forget about a priest's touch, as has been championed by the Catholic Church. Let him put his seed of God in your belly.

  • if all doctors had the same passion in their work, healthcare would've been reformed by now...

    what i like to see is a study of how "the doctor's touch" improve on healthcare in terms of treatment... do the benefits of ritualistic examinations (early detection, physiological... etc) trump it's costs (time.. etc)... i think doctors and physicians don't spend that little time on average with patients because they want to, it's mostly because they have to because of the number of patients.

  • @MrIbrahimO Not really time that needs to be dedicated in large amounts, but simply questioning, Especially the patients past. This whole nurse-deal asking from a list and check-marking followed by tests and such - Then a doctor? It is costly. More tests that possibly needed. I would indeed love some empirical studies. For example, is the back-up of patients a result of this form of treatment, as technology was introduced? Would be a viable question indeed. As well as others.

  • if all doctors had the same passion in their work, healthcare would've been reformed by now...

    what i like to see is a study of how "the doctor's touch" improve on healthcare in terms of treatment... do the benefits of ritualistic examinations (early detection, physiological... etc) trump it's costs (time.. etc)... i think doctors and physicians don't spend that little time on average with patients because they want to, it's mostly because they have to because of the number of patients.

  • good talk about the dehumanizing aspects of modern medicine

  • human touch ...indeed! ...compassion...

    ...for many years the doctors that I've 'experience ...sit or stand across the room ...rarely is there even eye contact ...the 'appointment' seems to be more about the chart and waiting for the doctor to even enter the room ...i'm thinking it might be refreshing to see a doctor with a perspective similar to that of Dr. Verghese

  • I agree with him. It is a big issue. I could tell my story, but I've been essentially suffering for about 2 years. I was healthy, fit, working out, college.. Then it struck slowly. Got sent to Neurology, Rhuematology, Orthopedic, and even Endocrinology. Even my primary care physician. Essentially, they have a standardized set of "questions", and put emphasis solely on tests. Recently I was told to "exercise", which wouldn't have been said if they listened to my past. So.. yeah. Annoying.

  • @ACANOFSODA Not to mention these tests they did when I was asleep, after I signed papers when sporadic and in-pain have essentially costed me tons of money. CT scans, MRI's, blood tests. The whole deal. Also, side note, having them "lose records" didn't help. Then after tests and nurses who asked the "Are you smoking" and such, the doctor(Even a specialist) will come in for 5 minutes, tells me what he thinks, leaves. I sit there thinking: "So.. What now". It's bullshit.

  • @ACANOFSODA The moment you said Rhuematology I knew you must be a complicated case,.

  • @595o Yeah, still trying to see what it might be. I am essentially entertaining the doctor's ideas at the moment, since it is the only thing I have. I do have one rhuematoid factor which may result in something auto-immune, although those things are tricky and can fluctuate. So, gotta go back in 6 months to redo testing. Anyhow, I just commented because the video sort of struck me. Made me wonder if it could have been dealt with earlier. But! Least I'm not totally crippled. Haha

  • i cried.

  • That's a doctor very passionate about his work.

  • 0:15

  • @SEThatered thank you

  • @SEThatered most useful "first" sort of post.

  • @SEThatered Thanks SEThatered!

  • @SEThatered interesting how I always look for this TC in a top comment, cheers :)

  • @SCAREDBANANA Your porn addiction is of relevance how?

  • "A doctor´s touch" I think they make pornos about that.

  • The quality of diagnoses and treatment seems to be higher than ever, so I'm left to wonder why this is an unacceptable loss.

  • @Iced1992 Seems to be. The problem I noticed is when it comes to a very difficult diagnosis(Which even 1% of people is a significant number given the total), you get a lack of spotting it. Simple problems are usually treated fast, but there seems to be a disconnect which doesn't allow any Bayesian-style decision making. I've been to many specialists, and have been getting worse. Now, I'm paying directly to seek care. I've been running into this mentality left and right. It isn't good.

  • @ACANOFSODA Yeah, that was my assumption as well. Despite a growing number of diagnoses one can only guess if not even more would be found with a doctor's touch. I'm too uneducated in the statistics of healthcare to give even a vaguely substantive opinion on the matter though. Add to that my being European (Netherlands being or having been in the top 10 countries for health care globally) and I really find that I should not be commenting on this video.

  • @Iced1992 Haha.. Algood. I'm in America, and that is a place suffering pretty badly from this Healthcare deal. Texas isn't too smart a place. The doctor's "touch" is important. Which is very important, if you've seen shows like "Mystery Diagnosis", etc. When you rely solely on test, they reveal a lot.. But not the most. Knowing the patients past is very important. It can weed out or allude to possibilities. Something that are standardized questioning method doesn't show

  • For example, Parkland medical center. Once they diagnose - The problem is fixed fast. They are fantastic at that. But in terms of finding the initial diagnosis, and doing it fast.. We become lacking in the difficult cases. The simpler ones should be taken for granted, they should be diagnosed fast. Although, the ones with more prevalence are not being recognized by as many doctors. I've been dealing with this for.. 2 years? Neurology, Rhuematology, Endocrinology., Then they say "Try to exercise"

  • good touch, not bad touch

Loading...
Alert icon
0 / 00Unsaved Playlist Return to active list
    1. Your queue is empty. Add videos to your queue using this button:
      or sign in to load a different list.
    Loading...Loading...Saving...
    • Clear all videos from this list
    • Learn more