Therapeutic partnerships in emergency medicine are built on a bridge of trust. Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners must build this trust despite time constraints. Otherwise, the value of their care can get lost in translation at the patient's bedside.

Gary Josephsen, MD, has spent his career as an emergency physician searching for ways to improve his connection to patients. It led him to the work of Irwin Press, an anthropologist whose pioneering research in measuring patient satisfaction steered him to startling discoveries on modern medical practices. Among these are the...