[Empathy and medicine: benefits for both patient and doctor]

BENEFITS FOR BOTH PATIENT AND DOCTOR. Empathy can be defined as the ability to understand and/or share another person's emotional state. It is a multidimensional concept based on distinct psychological processes. In the context of the doctor-patient relationship, clinical empathy also involves the physician's ability to convey their understanding of the patient's emotional state and their motivation to care. It is associated with numerous benefits, ranging from the quality of the doctor-patient relationship to therapeutic effectiveness. Conversely, certain notions like the decline of empathy during medical school or its association with the risk of burnout should be questioned in the light of a multidimensional perspective. Interventions aimed at promoting clinical empathy in medical students should target both communication skills and the humanistic values they are taught, utilize experiential methods, and involve patients.