[Words].

Abstract

Society and our modern world are changing, and so does our language and its words, those carriers of our different trains of thought. Heavy or lightweight, last but not least, simple or pompous, easygoing or sophisticated, words can fail and cheat us, we can play with them or simply use them, they live their own life but we cannot live without them. They disappear or reappear, they sometimes don't have the same meaning for our patients as for us, and we have to strive and hear what they say and do not say... in so many words. Maybe the real change in our brave new world of high-tech communication would be to restore its true value to the patient-doctor relationship in a verbal and non-verbal exchange. Of course this goes without saying, but so much better when said!