Inattentive Age

As we have been overturned by the social media revolution and iphonetizied, when an individual actual calls you or talks to you and listens, its a rare finding.  Similarly, in medicine and in all specialties, we are seeing everyone engaged in their ipads, iphones, electronic records, computers and there has been a loss of humanity. A recent report said that our attention average span of 12 minutes went down to 5 minutes in the last decade.
Part of being a good physician is being a good listener and observer. How and when are we observing and listening if we are constantly texting and tweeting?

A nice article in the Wall street journal sheds light on this very issue. It highlights a major program in Yale School of Medicine on using museums as a way to teach observational skills to medical students and improve their diagnostic skills. Its worth a read ! Like always, we want to be well balanced. Too much swinging of pendulum towards one side is harmful not matter which side we go!

Find the article here