It has not been uncommon during recent years for patients to comment that their usual medical provider does not do any kind of hands-on physical examination when they see the patient. This is a troubling situation that seems to have increased during recent years.
For certain types of follow-up visits, an exam might not be necessary. But when evaluating new problems, examining the patient has always been regarded as the standard of care. When I went through training, doctors who didn’t examine the patient were regarded as deficient.
Dr. Joseph Varon from the Independent Medical Alliance just published an article on this topic: “Medicine Has Forgotten To Touch the Patient”. It is worth a look. He discusses the influences of electronic records, Covid, telemedicine and AI. But he also raises the prospect that the skill of examining patients might be lost if the teachers no longer know how to do it.
Be the first to reply