Empathy in medical education

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the results of this meta-analysis indicate that one needs to be cautious in concluding that empathy decreases during medical education, given the over-reliance on one single measure. At a practical level, studies examining changes in empathy scores should include more than one measure in order to derive meaningful conclusions. A tri- angulation of methods using self reports, but also patient perceptions, and even peer assessments could provide reli- able information concerning the changes of empathy during the years of undergraduate medical education. More infor- mation is needed before we devote scarce resources to train- ing healthcare professionals to be more empathetic, in order to deliver high quality, holistic care

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