Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care

In this thorough revision, updating, and expansion of his great 2007 book, Empathy in Patient Care, Professor Hojat offers all of us in healthcare education an uplifting magnum opus that is sure to greatly enhance how we conceptualize, measure, and teach the central professional virtue of empathy. Hojat’s new Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care provides students and professionals across healthcare with the most scientifically rigorous, conceptually vivid, and comprehensive statement ever produced proving once and for all what we all know intuitively – empathy is healing both for those who receive it and for those who give it. This book is filled with great science, great philosophizing, and great ‘how to’ approaches to education. Every student and practitioner in healthcare today should read this and keep it by the bedside in a permanent place of honor.


Stephen G Post, Ph.D., Professor of Preventive Medicine, and Founding Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, School of Medicine, Stony Brook University 


Dr. Hojat has provided, in this new edition, a definitive resource for the evolving area of empathy research and education. For those engaged in medical student or resident education and especially for those dedicated to efforts to improve the patient experience, this book is a treasure trove of primary work in the field of empathy.


Leonard H. Calabrese, D.O., Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University


The latest edition of Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care grounds the clinical art of empathic caring in the newly recognized contributions of brain imagery and social cognitive neuroscience. Furthermore, it updates the accumulating empirical evidence for the clinical effects of empathy that has been facilitated by the widespread use of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, a generative contribution to clinical research by this book’s author. In addition, the book is so coherently structured that each chapter contributes to an overall understanding of empathy, while also covering its subject so well that it could stand alone. This makes Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care an excellent choice for clinicians, students, educators and researchers.


Herbert Adler, M.D., Ph.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior,Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University


It is my firm belief that empathy as defined and assessed by Dr. Hojat in his seminal book has far reaching implications for other areas of human interaction including business, management, government, economics, and international relations.


Amir H. Mehryar, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Population Studies, Institute for Research and Training in Management and Planning, Tehran, Iran

“This is an extraordinarily well developed, researched, and validated summary on the value and use of the concept of empathy in the health professions. It serves as an excellent review for admissions committees of all health disciplines, career counselors in the undergraduate areas and for those considering residency training, and as a tool for those in health profession leadership roles in counseling graduate clinicians who have experienced difficulties in their interpersonal relations and patient-clinician relations.” (Vincent F. Carr, Doody's Book Reviews, August, 2016)

“In this thorough revision of his great 2007 book, Empathy in Patient Care, Dr. Hojat offers  an uplifting magnum opus  to greatly enhance how we conceptualize, measure, and teach the central professional virtue of empathy. Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care provides students and professionals  with the most scientifically rigorous, conceptually vivid, and comprehensive statement ever produced proving once and for all what we all know intuitively – empathy is healing both for those who receive it and for those who give it. Every student and practitioner in healthcare today should read this and keep it by the bedside in a permanent place of honor.” (Stephen G Post, Ph.D., Professor of Preventive Medicine, and Founding Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, New York)

“Dr Hojat has provided, in this new addition, a definitive resource for the evolving area of empathy research and education. For those engaged in medical student or resident education and especially for those dedicated to efforts to improve the patient experience, this book is a treasure trove of primary work in the field of empathy.” (Leonard H. Calabrese, D.O., Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner, College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, RJ Fasenmyer Chair of Clinical Immunology, Theodore F Classen D.O., Chair of Osteopathic Research and Education, Vice Chairman, Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases, Cleveland, Ohio)

“The latest edition of Empathy in Patient Care grounds the clinical art of empathic caring in the newly recognized contributions of brain imagery and social cognitive neuroscience. Furthermore, it updates the accumulating empirical evidence for the clinical effects of empathy that has been facilitated by the widespread use of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy, a generative contribution to clinical research by this book’s author. In addition, the Book is so coherently structured that each chapter contributes to an overall understanding of empathy, while also covering its subject so well that it could stand alone. This makes Empathy in Patient Care an excellent choice for clinicians, students, educators and researchers.” (Herbert Adler, M.D., Ph.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. Pennsylvania)

“It is my firm belief that empathy as defined and assessed by Dr. Hojat in his seminal book has far reaching implications for other areas of human interaction including business, management, government, economics, and international relations. I only hope that Dr. Hojat or some of his students will find the necessary time and resources to explore the implications and applications of empathy to these wider areas of human endeavor.” (Amir H. Mehryar, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Population Studies, Institute for Research and Training in Management and Planning, Tehran, Iran)

Mohammadreza Hojat, Ph.D. is Research Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, and Director of the Jefferson Longitudinal Study of Medical Education at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was born in Mashhad, Iran, received his bachelor’s degree from Pahlavi University (currently University of Shiraz), his master’s degree from the University of Tehran in Iran, and his doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hojat is a licensed psychologist in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals on educational, psychological, and social issues.