Pediatric Interviewing

Ô ObivoV brac ?vV, eJ de teJcnh makrhv Life is short, [the] art long —Hippocrates Pediatric Interviewing: A Practical, Relationship Based Approach by James Binder is filled with a unique blend of wisdom, experience, and evidence, which will serve as a guide and as a reminder that what comes first in the care of the patient is the language and the silences that are shared between patient and physician. The medical interview quickly establishes the type of caring relati- ship the two will share. In this age of electronic medical records, pay-forperformance, and evidence-based medicine it is easy to lose sight that medicine is fundamentally about one person who has knowledge and experience providing care for another individual who is asking for help. How the physician organizes his or her interactions has an important impact on the experience and o- comes for both the physician and for the patient. Dr. Binder presents a conceptual framework with which to approach interviewing and illustrates this framework with pr- tical examples from years of teaching and practice. Physicia- intraining will find this book filled with wisdom and much needed recommendations about how to approach the medical interview. For those of us who have been in practice a number of years, Dr. Binder’s book can serve as a refreshing opportunity to reflect in detail about something many of us take for granted – the c- plexity of the medical interview.