Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care

Part 1. Empathy in Human Relationships.- Descriptions and Conceptualization.- Human Connection in Health and Illness.- An Evolutionary Perspective, Sociophysiology, and Heritability.- Psychodynamics and Development.- Measurement of Empathy in the General Population.- Part II. Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care.- A Definition and Key Features of Empathy in Patient Care.- The Jefferson Scale of Empathy.- The Interpersonal Dynamics in Clinician-Patient Relationships.-Empathy as Related to Personal Qualities, Career Choice.- Empathy and Gender: Are Men and Women Complementary.- Empathy and Patient Outcomes.- Erosion and Enhancement of Empathy.- In Search of Neurological Underpinnings of Empathy.- Parting Thoughts: A Systemic Paradigm of Empathy and Future Directions.- Concluding Remarks.