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When patients are worried, many feel compelled to find any personal link to the doctor they can—-understandably so. It is reassuring.

If the doctor is a friend-of-a-friend, that can be plenty close enough.

The patient’s doctor went through residency training with the specialist the patient needs. Good!

The doctor and the patient, meeting for the first time, stumble on a common interest—-the patient feels as if this now is a “real” person in charge and relaxes a little.

Although doctors are charged with treating patients properly in all cases, there remains a primal belief among patients that any personal connection to the doctor will get them better care.

Now, a presentation at the meeting of the Radiological Society of North America seems to support patients’ sense that any patient-physician connection can significantly benefit them.

When the patient’s pictures were attached to the studies, the physicians—-often far away from the patients—-were more engaged in the reading and wrote fuller reports.

Medpage Today

“Adding a photo of the patient to the file may boost the radiologist’s empathy and produce a more thorough report, researchers said here.

“Radiologists were more likely to relate better to the patient whose scans they were interpreting and write longer, more detailed reports when they saw a photo of the patient, Yehonatan N. Turner, M.D., of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, said at the Radiological Society of North America meeting.

“Radiologists often review CT images at a later time, or from remote locations, and lack physician-patient contact,” Dr. Turner said. “We thought maybe the addition of a photo would enable a more personal approach.”

“Radiology is often criticized for a lack of empathy with individual patients, but putting a face on the scan could change that.”

Source: Presentation, Radiological Society of North America, December 2, 2008