Surgeon Empathy

LIFETIME HIP & KNEE

Read on: lifetimehip.com

Read time: 2 minutes

#124: Empathy

Surgeons are not well known for their empathetic skills..

Problem => Fix it

In a busy clinic..

Some of the softer people skills can get left on the sidelines

So, a paper showing..

Empathy = tangible results

..caught my eye.

Now, this is a paper on back pain, not hips + knees.

BUT the message likely translates well between sub-specialties.

1470 people were treated with chronic back pain

..those are good numbers.

The researchers split treating clinicians into:

SEP: Slightly Empathetic Physician
VEP: Very Empathetic Physician

NOT Empathetic + Apathic

Very + Slightly..!

..what a nice bit of politics.

And the result over 12 months:

Impressive.

Those people treated by very empathic physicians got significantly better..

Pain
Function +
Health-related quality of life

Their conclusion..

‘Greater efforts to cultivate and improve physician empathy appear warranted’

Here, here..

And I posted about this editorial

A reminder to orthopaedic surgeons that..

The Goal is #Health, not #Surgery 👏👏

Suggested ways to channel this included..

UK number of joint replacements each year

I like the reminder that 'all surgery is strategic harm'..

There’s often a pressure in healthcare to ‘see more patients’

AND that can lead to shorter appointment times.

A pressure to get one patient out the door

AND the next patient in.

Clinic administrators are under pressure themselves

And have been known to double book appointments

Adding to the pressure.

30-minute appointments

Early on in my career I came to the realisation...

That new patients- that is patients I’m seeing for the first time

Need 30-minute appointments.

NOT 20-minutes

Or 15-minutes

BUT by the time I’ve been through:

People's notes + images
Heard their story
Examined
Talked through results
Formed a plan together

We need a full 30-minutes to cover everything

That often means the patient in front of me is making moves to leave the room..

BUT it also means that I’ve had all the time I need to..

See things from their point of view. I hope that’s empathy.
And focuss on their #health, not #surgery.

These papers strike a chord..

They validate the choice I made over 15 years ago.

(Slightly) More time in clinic leads to better outcomes.

AND that's what really matters..

Next week..

A final paper in my review of 2025..

I can then get onto my plans for 2026 😀

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Duchy Hospital
Truro
TR1 3UP
United Kingdom