Table 2.

Benefits of Greater Physician Empathy for the Physician and Patient

Benefits to	Elaboration	References
Patients	Better understanding of the patient	[10, 11, 14, 42, 58, 63, 69, 78, 86, 100, 101, 103, 130]
	Improved patient satisfaction	[1–7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 20, 38, 39, 45, 50, 53, 68–72, 76, 78, 80, 83, 87, 88, 93, 94, 96, 104, 108, 112, 114, 115, 118, 121, 124, 126, 127, 131–137]
	Greater adherence to therapy	[1, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 20, 38, 39, 43–45, 47, 50, 53, 68, 70–72, 75, 76, 78, 80, 81, 83, 87, 91, 93, 94, 96, 104, 105, 108, 112–115, 121, 124, 125, 127, 131, 132, 137, 138]
	Better clinical outcomes	[1–10, 14–16, 19, 20, 39, 41, 43–46, 53, 58, 64–70, 72, 76, 78–80, 88, 93, 94, 96, 104, 105, 108–114, 117–121, 123–125, 127, 128, 131, 137, 139–141]
	Patient empowerment	[69, 128]
Physicians	Lower malpractice liability	[4, 9, 10, 12, 15, 20, 45, 71, 75, 76, 78, 93, 105, 108, 112, 113, 118, 126, 131, 132]
	Improved well-being of physicians	[1–3, 5–7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 17, 50, 52, 61, 64, 68, 70, 74, 76, 78, 83, 84, 94, 105, 108, 109, 113, 114, 118]
	Fosters a better physician-patient relationship	[2, 4, 10, 19, 50, 56, 58, 60, 65, 66, 78, 80, 105, 107, 108, 111, 114, 115, 118, 119, 121, 125, 126, 138, 141]
	Greater clinical competence	[2, 4, 41, 55, 60, 68, 72, 75, 86, 101, 108, 115, 131, 138]