RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Finding Hope in the Face-to-Face
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 272
OP 274
DO 10.1370/afm.2076
VO 15
IS 3
A1 Jennifer Y. C. Edgoose
A1 Julian M. Edgoose
YR 2017
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/15/3/272.abstract
AB What does it mean to look into the face of a patient who looks back? Face-to-face encounters are at the heart of the patient-clinician relationship but their singular significance is often lost amid the demands of today’s high-tech, metric-driven health care systems. Using the framework provided by the philosopher and Holocaust survivor Emmanuel Levinas, the authors explore the unique responsibility and potential for hope found only in face-to-face encounters. Revisiting this most fundamental attribute of medicine is likely our greatest chance to reclaim who we are as clinicians and why we do what we do.