There is something to be said for teaching physicians more than can be memorized from medical volumes. Understanding a concept is much more important than remembering an answer.
A strong focus on humanities has been a core of many medical programs for longer than the article suggests. Patients are humans and respond to treatment better when treated as such. The popularity of online symptom/illness websites, I believe, stems from the willingness of physicians to divorce themselves from their humanity when interacting with patients. "Just the facts... Check the boxes and write a 'scrip... By the book, by the numbers. In and out. Very sterile, very efficient."
With a little patience I can teach a horse to count, but I cannot teach her the concept of division. By the same token, physicians tend to be great at remembering facts, but less adept at working a complex problem from basic principles to reach an otherwise unclear solution. For that you need a REAL doctor...
This "narrative medicine" sounds like a way to get prospective physicians away from working problems like poor imitations of computers, and to start working them like humans. This, I think, is a great step forward and- ironically- backward as well...
