October 11, 2010 A doctor’s hands are in danger of being replaced by an array of medical devices, fears Abraham Verghese, the former Johnson City writer and physician whose first novel, Cutting for Stone, is a national bestseller. According to a new profile in The New York Times, Verghese “is on a mission to bring back something he considers a lost art: the physical exam. The old-fashioned touching, looking and listening—the once prized, almost magical skills of the doctor who missed nothing and could swiftly diagnose a peculiar walk, sluggish thyroid or leaky heart valve using just keen eyes, practiced hands and a stethoscope.” Read the full Times feature here and a Chapter 16 interview with Verghese here.
Bedside Manners
Abraham Verghese wants young doctors to touch their patients
