The Rituals of Healing

Do you notice the rituals of healing in the same way as you notice the rituals of religion? It is interesting to think that rituals play a large role in the healthcare system, and perhaps in our ultimate healing. What do you consider the rituals of healthcare? Perhaps the white coat and stethoscope? The physical exam?  Receiving of a prescription for a medicine?  I have been reflecting on what we consider rituals related to the healing process as I have read and watched some interesting remarks on this subject from two leading sources on this topic.

Dr. Ted Kaptchuk, the director of Harvard's Program in Placebo Studies and Therapeutic Encounters, was recently interviewed in the New Yorker magazine about his quest to understand the placebo effect and how it influences quantifiable measures of health.  Could our belief about whether a treatment is effective or our level of trust in routine rituals of healthcare, such as placing a stethoscope on the chest, physiologically change our ability to heal? 

Dr. Abraham Verghese, author and physician, ponders whether we, as a society, are in danger of losing the art of medicine as we have increased access to technology to support the science of medicine. In his recent TED talk,  Dr. Verghese argues that while it is important to have modern tools of medicine, which are enabled by science and technology, the art of medicine is essential as well.  For it is the art of medicine that allows for the human connection between patient and healer to emerge and the rituals of healing to be sustained.

What are your thoughts?

It's All About Connection

Each year The Kenneth Schwartz Center selects a Compassionate Caregiver who embodies the qualities of empathy, compassion, caring and presence in their work and life. This year's winner is Dr. Amy Ship, a primary care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. I was particularly moved by Dr. Ship's acceptance speech, where she explains that it is all about connection...connecting through presence, through compassion, through understanding as both the care-giver and care-receiver. “The longer I’ve practiced medicine, the more I’ve come to realize that we are all, as the years go on, ‘survivors,’” she said. “For some it is cancer, but for others it is diabetes, or seizures, or kidney failure, or all of the above. Others are survivors of loss – loss of a limb, loss of sight, loss of autonomy, loss of hope, loss of a loved one. And I have learned that many of us – like me – carry with us some secret sorrow – a loss or challenge that is not noticeable. Connecting with patients means looking for what is not immediately visible, listening for the hole in another’s heart.”

I encourage you to view Dr. Ship's speech by clicking here and see and hear what connection in healthcare is all about! Congratulations, Dr. Amy Ship, truly a compassionate caregiver.