There was a time — not so long ago — when a visit to the doctor felt like visiting an old friend.
Upon walking through the door, the receptionist paused her work, looked you in the eye and smiled, calling you by name before you’d said a word. She probably knew your spouse, your kids, and even your profession, without having to reference a chart. There was warmth in the waiting room — the quiet hum of conversation, the smell of coffee, a few well-thumbed magazines, the kind of comfort that didn’t come from technology, but from familiarity.
The doctor, too, was someone you knew. He or she might have delivered your children, cared for your aging parents, or treated your sore throat and colds with equal parts medicine, kindness, and concern. Appointments often ran late, but no one seemed to mind. It wasn’t just about symptoms — it was about you. A story was told, not just a record taken. There was listening and eye contact, without the glow of a screen; without impatience.
Back then, records were scribbled in the chart, test results took time, and prescriptions were handwritten, sometimes hard to read but unmistakably a personal document. Everything moved slower, but everything felt more human. The doctor’s office was not just a place of medicine, but a space of trust, connection, and healing.
Today, when we step into a modern medical office, the experience is very different.
Check-in may involve a tablet, not a person. Medical history is pulled from a screen, not from memory. The doctor enters, eyes on a laptop, typing before a greeting is even offered. Conversations are more focused, structured, less personal, and shorter. There are fewer smiles and fewer pauses. Everything is efficient, streamlined, and digital…..modern. It’s today’s medicine.
None of this is inherently bad. In fact, many advances have made healthcare safer and more accessible. Electronic records make reading notes easier and thus prevent errors. Lab results return in 24 hours, not days or weeks. Appointments can be scheduled online, and messages are responded to by email without requiring a call. Telemedicine opens a whole new world. There’s no denying the power and promise of modern medicine.
And yet it feels like something is slipping away.
In the pursuit of progress, we are slowly giving up the small, quiet moments that made medicine feel personal. The knowing glance, the warm hello, the stories shared. We are replacing relationships with recordkeeping, and the human touch, with touchscreens.
Doctors, too, feel something is missing. Most of us entered medicine to heal, to listen, to connect, — only to find ourselves buried in documentation, running around at full speed, and yearning for more time with the patient.
So, as we race forward, perhaps we should take a step back and ask how we can bring humanity back into the encounter. How can we preserve the essence of what medicine is supposed to be, in a world that demands speed and efficiency?
At the end of the day, patients don’t just want a diagnosis and a prescription. They want to be heard. They want to feel seen. They want to know that the person in the white coat remembers there is a human being there, not just a diagnosis.
And that is something no software can ever replace.
