Narrative-based medicine skills

I just caught Dr Zaharias’s crucial article on learning narrative-based medicine skills in the May 2018 issue of Canadian Family Physician¹ and added it as a reference to a “premise article,” soon to be published in the June issue of the British Columbia Medical Journal.² Dr Zaharias’s article is a ray of hope in a system drifting steadily toward harvesting “measurables” and the appearance of health management in our broader systems. Also, in the context of operant conditioning to seek the next link or “tick box” and losing the meaning of our work, I recommend an important episode of CBC Radio’s Sunday Edition: www.cbc.ca/player/play/1385247811595.³ It features an interview with the author of a recently published book summarizing her research,⁴ including using functional neuroimaging. It has shown that substantial interaction with information technology is associated with potential residual detrimental effects on our making of meaning and even experiencing feelings. As I have been contending, this is highly relevant to the physician-patient relationship.

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