Jazz and the ‘Art’ of Medicine: Improvisation in the Medical Encounter

Paul Haidet

doi:10.1370/afm.624

Abstract

Improvisation is an important aspect of patient-physician communication. It is also a defining feature of jazz music performance. This essay uses examples from jazz to illustrate principles of improvisation that relate to an individual communication act (ie, building space into one’s communication), a physician’s communicative style (ie, developing one’s voice), and the communicative process of the medical encounter (ie, achieving ensemble). At all 3 levels, the traditions of jazz improvisation can inform efforts to research and teach medical interviewing by fostering a contextualized view of patient-physician communication.

Annals Journal Club selection—see inside back cover or http://www.annfammed.org/AJC/.

Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: none reported
Funding support: This work was supported in part by the Relationship-Centered Care Research Initiative, an initiative of the Fetzer Institute, Kalamazoo, Mich.
Disclaimer: The opinions contained herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Baylor College of Medicine, the Fetzer Institute, or the American College of Physicians.
Ideas contained in this essay were presented in part as the keynote address at the American College of Physicians Southern California Regional Meeting, March 1, 2003, Los Angeles, Calif.