Helping Doctors Listen — Letters that should have been in the new york times

OCT. 16, 2003

To the Editor:

Re ''Diagnosis Goes Low Tech'' (Arts & Ideas, Oct. 11):

Many patients feel that they are not given the time they need to feel either cared about or well cared for. High-tech studies have not only supplemented but also replaced clinical acumen, and concerns about lengths of stay exist on the first day of admission. Physicians feel rushed and patients do, too -- the latter not only by the medical community and managed care but also by unrealistic expectations that technological advances should afford them the quick fix.

While technology has been responsible for profound advances in our ability to care for patients, we must not lose sight of the low-tech role of listening as an essential ingredient in healing. In our fast-paced world, this point of view has become devalued. I am glad to see within medical education that the pendulum is beginning to swing.

LARRY S. SANDBERG, M.D.

New York, Oct. 11, 2003

The writer is an assistant clinical professor at Cornell Weill Medical College.