I'm Alan Olga and this is Clear and Vivit, conversations about connecting and communicating.

Most people choose medical professions because they want to help people and there is an innate

reward when we help people.

It's been described as exquisite empathy, like that moment where what you say to a patient

and where they recognize that they are really understood and being helped, that the benefit

is both to the patient and to the physician.

There may not be a time in our lives when it's more important to know we're being understood

by another person than when we're in a doctor's office.

It's not an exaggeration to say our lives could depend on it.

If we're going to follow our physicians advice there has to be a level of trust and we need

to know we're being heard.

Relating and communicating in the doctor's office seems to us like an important enough subject

to devote a special series of three shows to it.

Our first conversation is with Helen Reese whose research has answered some important questions.

Questions like how important is empathy in the doctor patient relationship, can empathy

be taught?

Our answers are encouraging and exciting.

We made for our talk at our studio in New York.

Helen I really love the chance to talk with you on the podcast because we have a history

together.

You are in my book and I'm in your book, the empathy effect and the bylinus and seven

neuroscience-based keys for transforming the way we live, love, work and connect across

...