An aspect that characterizes all branches of Medicine is the optimalization of the key parameters. Simply, most clinicians are trained to assess key logistics to optimize their treatments. Western Medicine has taken this method to an extreme level, in my view.

Most Western clinicians now look to external data, produced by “instruments”, to aid them in treating the patient. That is, instead of discussing a patient’s health issues. With the patient, they are now primarily relying on data produced by machines. I have discussed patient treatment with many Western clinicians who tell me that they have diagnosed and treated with minimal patient contact.

I then ask them what they based their assessments on and most automatically say the data provided by their “tools”. I am assuming the reader appreciates the non-humanistic traits of the “tools”. They talk in a way that regulates the patient like some insignificant entity.

When I talk about this with my father, a Western physician, he doesn’t deny the fact that the method of treating has changed, dramatically, since when he first stated treating. I remember go with my father when he made his rounds with the patients. The time and level of personal interaction he has with each patient was significant. Sure, he looked at machine-generated data to help him in his treatment, but he was trained that it was a necessity to take time and personally talk with his patients. It was obvious that his patients appreciated this.

Now, I’m not going to brag about how we, TCM clinicians, still put patient interaction first in our treating; it’s just a fact. Our two most important diagnostic measures, Pulse-Taking and Tongue Analysis, are performed with our own senses, not some machine or “tool”. The ancients preached about a clinician honing the use of his senses to diagnose and treat his patients.

The one thing I learned from my father is the importance of bedside manners.