Ideas worth spreading

Can empathy help us heal health care?

Adrienne Boissy |

TED Salon: Optum

• July 2018

Health care is supposed to make us healthier -- but patients and doctors in the US both suffer under the current system. Adrienne Boissy, Chief Experience Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, says the root cause is a lack of empathy. When delivered properly, empathy has been proven to improve health outcomes, such as helping to control high blood pressure and managing diabetes -- and it might just be the great disruptor that healthcare needs to heal itself.

Health care is supposed to make us healthier -- but patients and doctors in the US both suffer under the current system. Adrienne Boissy, Chief Experience Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, says the root cause is a lack of empathy. When delivered properly, empathy has been proven to improve health outcomes, such as helping to control high blood pressure and managing diabetes -- and it might just be the great disruptor that healthcare needs to heal itself.

This talk was presented at a TED Salon event given in partnership with Optum.

Read more about TED Salons.

About the speaker

Adrienne Boissy

Adrienne Boissy

Patient experience expert

As Chief Experience Officer and staff neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, Adrienne Boissy is a global thought leader on patient experience. She co-chairs the Empathy and Innovation Summit, the largest independent summit on patient experience in the world, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Patient Experience. Dr. Boissy’s clinician communication curriculum is featured in her book Communication the "Cleveland Clinic Way: How to Drive a Relationship-Centered Strategy for Superior Patient Experience".

About TED Salon

TED Salons welcome an intimate audience for an afternoon or evening of highly-curated TED Talks revolving around a globally relevant theme. A condensed version of a TED flagship conference, they are distinct in their brevity, opportunities for conversation, and heightened interaction between the speaker and audience.

Read more about TED Salons

This talk was presented at a TED Salon event given in partnership with Optum.

Read more about TED Salons.