WEEKEND MEMOS

'Weekend memos' give our editorial writers a chance to express their own opinions, comment on topics they have been writing about, or take a lighter approach. The opinions in 'Memos' do not always follow the Enquirer's editorial positions.

It is not unreasonable to want our doctors to have an empathetic ear and a kindly demeanor. Americans have complained, and sued, enough that medical schools are responding. Beginning next year, graduating medical students must pass a "bedside manner" test to get their licenses.

The new test has been in the making for 15 years, according to The Washington Times. Doctors once were measured on such a thing, but it was dropped in 1964 because officials felt the test lacked objectivity.

Now, not surprisingly, licensing officials told The Times, "a large body of literature has shown that poor communication skills and interpersonal and general clinical skills are related to a higher incidence of malpractice suits, lower treatment compliance by patients and decreased patient satisfaction."

Three out of four medical schools now require students to take humanities courses to improve their emotional disposition and their powers of observation, says the Association of American Medical Colleges. The idea is to awaken the future docs' feelings and intuition to better connect with patients.

Some teaching tactics sound strange, but presumably work: At the University of California-Irvine, anatomy students write essays about their cadavers, imagining who they were in life, before taking them apart. The University of Arizona School of Medicine offers a course for "human nonverbal interaction at bedside." Med students are sent to a ranch where they're taught to analyze the reactions of horses to threatening human gestures, and thus sensitize themselves to their own body language.

Former surgeon and Yale professor Richard Selzer told The Los Angeles Times recently, "Science has outstripped our (physicians') ability as human beings to function in a humane way with patients." Selzer's book, Letter to a Young Doctor, in which he bares his emotions, fears and failures, is included in some medical humanities courses.

The new "bedside manner" test will take aspiring doctors a full day to complete and includes actors who mimic patients in distress.

Linda Cagnetti