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.
The Moseley study found no significant difference between those in the arthroscopic lavage and debridement arm of the study and those in the sham surgery arm.
Medical educators must become aware of undesirable behaviors or attitudes that they may inadvertently be modeling to students in the clinic because the implicit messages students receive can profoundly affect their behavior and interactions with patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(2):142-146. doi:
10.1001/virtualmentor.2015.17.2.jdsc1-1502.
It would be unwise medically, economically, or ethically to ignore medical details and rely instead on crude placeholders such as age in attempting to use resources most efficiently and effectively.