What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear

Dr. Danielle Ofri, editor-in-chief of Bellevue Literary Review, associate professor of Medicine at NYU, and physician at Bellevue Hospital
in conversation with
Mary Harris, host and managing editor of WNYC’s Only Human

Can refocusing conversations between doctors and their patients lead to better health?

Modern medicine is infatuated with high-tech gadgetry, yet the single most powerful diagnostic tool remains the doctor-patient conversation, which can uncover the lion’s share of illnesses. But often the difference between what patients say and what doctors hear is vast. Patients, anxious to convey their symptoms, feel an urgency to “make their case” to their doctors. Doctors, under pressure to be efficient, multitask while patients speak and often miss the key elements. Add in stereotypes, unconscious bias, conflicting agendas, and fear of lawsuits and the risk of misdiagnosis and medical errors multiplies dangerously. Dr. Ofri will speak with WNYC host Mary Harris about her new book, What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear, which proves that medicine doesn’t have to work that way, and how better communication can lead to better health for all of us.

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