"I never overstate until we have the facts, and patients always need hope." Dr. Vaughan of New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center explains how a doctor must be certain of their diagnosis and always allow their patients hope.

I never overstate until I have all the facts and patients always need hope.



Medicine is an art, it's a science, but it's clearly an art as well as a science. I remember a situation, I knew the doctor, the patient called me, they had one x-ray, they were panicked, the doctor said "you have bladder cancer you need an operation" and walked out of the room. I looked at the x-ray, wasn't sure it was cancer, turns out it wasn't. I told the patient, I don't know that this is cancer, you've got an abnormality, we will figure it out, the treatment, whatever it is, we will be able to take care of. It's important that you try to develop that rapport, that you offer them an option. That they think you are treating them personally, not treating a disease.