Touch and Body Language in the Physician Encounter

I was watching this TED video the other day from a physician and writer Abraham Verghese.  It was interesting since his whole point was about the ability to relate to your patient through human touch and the power that has on the patient’s trust and experience.  As we move towards move EMRs and other technologies, we have to make sure we don’t over-engineer the patient experience.

I was reminded of this again when reading KevinMD’s blog where there was a post on using body language.  How many of us think about what our body language is saying?

Or do we think about our clothing selection?  While the white coat may create trust, does the tie create a sense of being aloof?  Or should you consider different color sections to seem more approachable?

Food for thought.