Ideas worth spreading

A doctor's touch

1,976,893 views | Abraham Verghese • TEDGlobal 2011

Modern medicine is in danger of losing a powerful, old-fashioned tool: human touch. Physician and writer Abraham Verghese describes our strange new world where patients are merely data points, and calls for a return to the traditional one-on-one physical exam.

Modern medicine is in danger of losing a powerful, old-fashioned tool: human touch. Physician and writer Abraham Verghese describes our strange new world where patients are merely data points, and calls for a return to the traditional one-on-one physical exam.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Abraham Verghese

Physician and author

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In our era of the patient-as-data-point, Abraham Verghese believes in the old-fashioned physical exam, the bedside chat, the power of informed observation.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.