News – Using the Neuroscience of Emotions to Improve Patient-Doctor Communication

Helen Riess, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and director of the Empathy and Relational Science Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), has devoted her career to teaching and research in the art and science of the patient-doctor relationship. She is also chief scientist and chairman of Empathetics, LLC, a company that provides empathy and interpersonal skills training for medical professionals.

Empathetics provides self-paced, online courses that teach the basic science of emotional connections with others. The courses teach physicians how to detect and manage the emotional states of patients and how to respond with empathy and compassion, even in difficult interactions. Video vignettes enhance appreciation of the implicit emotional states in others. The courses also teach emotional self-management skills with specific techniques that can be easily incorporated into a medical professional’s daily routine. Empathetics is based on research in the neurobiology and physiology of empathy and has been rigorously tested in pilot studies and a randomized, controlled trial at MGH.

To learn more, watch Dr. Riess describe “The Power of Empathy” at TEDxMiddlebury (http://bit.ly/UWHQR2) and visit the Empathetics home page www.empathetics.com.