Humanity in medicine
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MODERN medicine’s dilemma lies in its fading connection with suffering humans and an overwhelming dependence on investigative tools — hallmarks of the contemporary medico-industrial complex. What starts out as a passionate, spiritual and transformative quest slowly becomes a maze of bureaucratic and greedy undertakings, overshadowed by numbers and data collection contained in electronic medical records (EMR).
While physicians sit behind computer screens, patients are carried away in sterile hospital hallways for a battery of tests — there is hardly any actual patient-doctor interaction. Physicians are now treating the ‘i-patient’ in the computer rather than real humans on the hospital bed. Once facilitating healing even in the absence of a cure, the practice of medicine has evolved into measurable units of a value-based health system. Today, physicians spend more than twice as much time in the physician workroom with EMR than they do interacting with patients. In doing so, they squander that cerebral opportunity of seeking knowledge from a real patient’s bedside examination.
Ironically, as technology advances, bedside skills become rickety. Physical examination is becoming extinct due to the staggering emphasis on investigation, telemedicine and complex EMR utilisation. The perceptiveness and caring attitude that guides students to medical school somehow dissipates along their way to becoming doctors thanks to the hardships of training and the monetary aspects of their profession. However, a caring approach can be kept alive by nurturing empathy in day-to-day medical practice. Focusing on bedside manners provides an opportunity for one-on-one interaction, demonstrating attentiveness to patients and their families — a vital component in diagnoses and the healing process.
If done efficiently, the ritual of physical exam implies vigilance. It fortifies the physician-patient relationship, thus enriching the Good Samaritan law of medicine. As numerous scans sharply portray anatomy, the physical exam is often viewed as superfluous.
The bedside is consecrated ground for doctors.
Whereas the EMR template just requires one click to fill, it takes effort to change it manually. Patients can sense the deficiency when clinicians deviate from established bedside skills. They can see how the nonchalant bedside visit and the placement of the stethoscope through the clothing away from the heart contrast with a skilful, diligent examination. With increasing technology, clinicians feel themselves knowledgeable in hospital-based systems, but are ill-equipped in their bedside examination skills.
With novel methods of understanding the human body, we are lucky to breathe in this age of technology. Yet there is an overarching need to incorporate a humanistic approach in patient care. The bedside is consecrated ground for clinicians, the place where fellow human beings permit them the right of looking at and touching their bodies. Such trust can only be earned through competence and judgement. Touch is a fundamental aspect of human communication, prompting sensitive and corporeal connections. Combining the needs of the body and the soul is a fundamental principle on which Islamic civilisation sought to achieve human happiness. By eliminating superstitions and embracing scientific methodology, Islam introduced a new dimension in the study of medicine, viewing it not only as a physical practice, but also as a means to address spiritual and emotional well-being.
A better understanding of the patient’s narrative implies better medical care. When physicians put themselves in the patient’s shoes, the themes of identity and healing, as well as the intricacies of the human condition, dawn on them more profoundly. The human connection — a critical theme in centralised patient care — has been mislaid in time constraints, goal-oriented tasks, EMR built for collecting revenue rather than facilitating patient care and the administrative strains of contemporary medicine, thus contributing to physician burnout and patient discontent.
Today, an anthropologist walking through our hospitals cannot be mocked for concluding that the real patient is inside the computer. Clinicians can handle this deficiency by taking a moment to prepare and reflect before welcoming a patient, listen attentively by sitting down, inclining forward and avoiding disruptions, trying to find out what matters most for the patient, connecting with the patient’s story, celebrating achievements and understand-ing the patient’s emotions. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is said to have emphasised kindness in treating patients by saying: “The merciful are shown mercy by the Merciful” (Sunan Ibn Majah).
The writer is an assistant professor at West Virginia University School of Medicine.
Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2025
