title: Physician empathy: definition, outcome-relevance and its measurement in patient care and medical education.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study gives a brief introduction into 1. the definition of physician empathy (PE) and 2. its influence on patients' health outcomes. Furthermore 3. we present assessment instruments to measure PE from the perspective of the patient and medical student. The latter topic will be explored in detail as we conducted a pilot study on the German versions of two self-assessment instruments of empathy, which are mostly used in medical education research, namely the "Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, Student Version" (JSPE-S) and the "Interpersonal Reactivity Index" (IRI).
  
  
  METHODS
  We first present an overview of the current empirical and theoretical literature on the definition and outcome-relevance of PE. Additionally, we conducted basic psychometric analyses of the German versions of the JSPE-S and the IRI. Data for this analyses is based on a cross-sectional pilot-survey in N=44 medical students and N=63 students of other disciplines from the University of Cologne.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PE includes the understanding of the patient as well as verbal and non-verbal communication, which should result in a helpful therapeutic action of the physician. Patients' health outcomes in different healthcare settings can be improved considerably from a high quality empathic encounter with their clinician. Basic psychometric results of the German JSPE-S and IRI measures show first promising results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PE as an essential and outcome-relevant element in the patient-physician relationship requires more consideration in the education of medical students and, thus, in medical education research. The German versions of the JSPE-S and IRI measures seem to be promising means to evaluate these education aims and to conduct medical education research on empathy.
authors.affiliation: Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine (ICURAM) at the Gerhard Kienle Chair for Medical Theory, Integrative and Anthroposophic Medicine, Witten, Germany. melanie.neumann@uni-wh.de
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scheffer
authors.forename: Diethard
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tauschel
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lutz
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wirtz
authors.forename: Friedrich
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Edelhäuser
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult