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. 2017 May;15(3):272-274.
doi: 10.1370/afm.2076.

Finding Hope in the Face-to-Face

Jennifer Y C Edgoose  1 , Julian M Edgoose  2
Affiliations

Finding Hope in the Face-to-Face

Jennifer Y C Edgoose et al. Ann Fam Med. 2017 May.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: clinician-patient communication/relationship; hope; psychosocial issues in health care.

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References

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