Allopathic clinicians should treat local health practitioners as equal partners in cross-cultural clinical practice and express respect for traditional therapies.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(7):691-697. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.7.ecas4-1607.
There are at least two considerations here: the patient’s perception of a physician’s empathic expression and the physician’s level of comfort with expressing empathy and attending to patients’ emotions.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(2):111-115. doi:
10.1001/virtualmentor.2015.17.2.ecas1-1502.