The Importance of Empathy in Palliative Care

In one study it was shown that the rate of severe diabetes complications and patients of doctors who rate high on a standard empathy scale is a remarkable 40% lower than in patients with low empathy doctors. Many of us who either work in palliative care and hospice or even who are generalists like me, believe that frontline clinicians should all have a core competence in the communication, the symptom management and the quality of life protocols that palliative Care really brings to the table.