[originaltext] Well, my topic today is the doctor-patient relationship. All

Well, my topic today is the doctor-patient relationship. All of us may have to see the doctor sometimes. We know the symptoms and what calls itself "the best medical system in the world". However, the receptionist is more interested in our insurance than in our pain. We can often feel that our examination, such as it is, is being conducted by that blinking machinery. What we’re missing is the educated touch. Medicine is not only curing, but it’s also healing. And healing requires the type of medicine that we’re adopting. And if that is lost, medicine becomes a technology. The more critical work of a doctor happens not from lab tests, not from anything that you can measure with a needle or a number, but in the taking of the human history, which is, of course, one of the patient’s biggest... I mean, we’re all longing for somebody to take our history and see it whole-mind.
    Listening is the most important and most difficult single transaction. Most difficult, because it takes time. There is no substitute. And the moment you start by not giving time, you cannot listen. And listening is not merely with the ears: Listening is with your total being. And the fact of the matter is, the studies carried out in Britain and other places, show that 75% of all the valuable information that leads to correct diagnosis comes from the history. Another 10% comes from the physical examination. 10% comes from simple laboratory tests, and 5% comes from all the complex technology that you’re launched against, and sometimes for, the patient. So listening is vital, because listening is not merely listening, but to establish a relationship.
    But the doctor focuses on only one thing—the chief complaint. And the chief complaint may have nothing to do with what brings the patient to the doctor. This type of doctoring is essential, because 80% of all the problems that come to doctors are trivial. The problem is the doctor isn’t there, because the doctor doesn’t want to listen. He’s afraid to listen. He doesn’t know how to listen. He hasn’t been trained how to listen. There is no premium on listening. There’s no reward for listening. And good health begins first and foremost with caring. If you don’t care for a patient, be somebody else, but don’t be a doctor.
16 What is the receptionist more interested in?
17 What is the most important and most difficult single transaction for doctors?
18 Where does the most valuable information that leads to correct diagnosis come from?
19 What does the doctor only focus on?