The PBS program "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly" today features a video profile of Abraham Verghese, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford and author of three best-selling books. As Fred de Sam Lazaro reports, Verghese believes that "students and practitioners of medicine in the west rely on technology in a system that stresses cognitive knowledge and machines over the skill that comes from touch and feel:"
VERGHESE: I’m the first to admit that the resolution of a hand feeling a belly doesn’t compare with the resolution of a cat scan scanning a belly, but only my hand can say that it hurts at this spot and not at this spot. Only my hand can say that. Only my hand can say that this pulsatile mass, which might be an aneurism, is also painful. Which is therefore maybe a leaking aneurism. You know, there are nuances to the exam that no machine is going to give you.
Related: Cutting for Stone is one of Lynn Neary's 2009 book club picks
