Art Of Doctoring

Despite the gloomy predictions about the increasing cost and decreasing quality of healthcare, doctors can and should be involved in reforming our ailing health sector. Rather than relying on government and public policymakers to provide the ideal circumstances to optimise outcomes, doctors can and should be the creators of the change we all want to see. The answers to many of our healthcare challenges have been apparent for decades and solutions to those challenges are still often accessible locally from the resourceful community of healthcare practitioners.

Every doctor has the power to make a huge difference to the outcome for their patients merely by paying close attention to how they practice the art of doctoring. What we need is a set of rituals we can use in the consultation with patients analogous to the rituals performed by a surgeon before she deploys her scalpel on the patient's skin.

What difference could this kind of attention to detail in the healthcare sector make to patients? How might we relieve the pressure on the system by engaging the most underutilised and creative resource in healthcare design--the doctors, their staff, and the people who need their help? The Art of Doctoring explores the answers to these questions.