practice partner
Finding Common
Ground with Your
Patients
A Conversation with Dr. Zackary Berger
DOC TALK
By Stuart Foxman
A
s a medical student, Dr. Zackary Berger did
a hospital rotation where he watched an
ENT specialist quickly examine a patient.
“That business over with,” Dr. Berger later
wrote, “the physician asked the patient, without ceremony, ‘Do you smoke?’ ‘Yes,’ said the man. ‘Well, you
should quit,’ said the doctor.” Dr. Berger later heard the
specialist dictate his notes: “Patient is an active smoker.
Smoking cessation c