Steinmair D, Zervos K, Wong G, Löffler-Stastka H. Importance of communication in medical practice and medical education: An emphasis on empathy and attitudes and their possible influences. World J Psychiatry 2022; 12(2): 323-337 [PMID: 35317334 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i2.323]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Henriette Löffler-Stastka, MD, Dean, Director, Professor, Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, Vienna 1090, Austria. henriette.loeffler-stastka@meduniwien.ac.at
Research Domain of This Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Dagmar Steinmair, Henriette Löffler-Stastka, Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
Dagmar Steinmair, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems 3500, Austria
Dagmar Steinmair, Department of Ophtalmology, University Hospital St. Pölten, St. Pölten 3100, Austria
Katharina Zervos, Department of Internal Medicine I, KRH Klinikum Robert-Koch-Gehrden, Gehrden 30989, Germany
Guoruey Wong, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montréal, Montréal 2900, Québec, Canada
Author contributions: Steinmair D and Zervos K wrote the original draft of the manuscript; Steinmair D, Wong G, and Löffler-Stastka H edited and revised the manuscript; Zervos K contributed to the investigation; Löffler-Stastka H contributed to the supervision of the study and to the conceptualization of the study; Steinmair D and Löffler-Stastka H reviewed the literature; Steinmair D contributed to the visualization of the study.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical University of Vienna (EK-Nr. 1381/2015).
Informed consent statement: Participants were required to give informed consent to the study. No patients were enrolled in the study. Furthermore, the analysis used anonymous data that were obtained after each participant had agreed to the assessment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no conflict of interest and no financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: Data is available on request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Henriette Löffler-Stastka, MD, Dean, Director, Professor, Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, Vienna 1090, Austria. henriette.loeffler-stastka@meduniwien.ac.at
Received: April 23, 2021 Peer-review started: April 23, 2021 First decision: June 17, 2021 Revised: June 30, 2021 Accepted: December 25, 2021 Article in press: December 25, 2021 Published online: February 19, 2022 Processing time: 299 Days and 22.3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
If a change should be facilitated - either in individual patients for a better health status, or society at large for overcoming difficult circumstances - understanding of minds, reflection and empathy is needed. These change processes with the mentioned ingredients should be assessed further for the long run.
Research motivation
Knowing one’s own mind to transform oneself is essential. Empathy is needed in the context of patient-centered care.
Research objectives
To assess how medical students perform in their ability to provide an empathic medical history taking.
Research methods
Interviews with experienced physicians/mentors.
Research results
Differences between medical specialties are shown, but in general all physicians claim for a strengthening of empathy.
Research conclusions
Concise structure and an empathic attitude are necessary for the understanding of minds in order to get the needed information for adequate clinical reasoning and clinical decision making.
Research perspectives
Understanding of minds and mentality can be facilitated, trained and strengthened.
