Ideas worth spreading

A doctor's touch

1,995,313 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

Abraham Verghese

Physician and author

See speaker profile

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.

Learn more

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