Doctors should keep quiet and let patients explain their problems instead of interrupting them, Swiss scientists said. Most patients can explain what is wrong with them in less than two minutes and many may even be swifter, according to Dr. Wolf Langewitz of University Hospital in Basle. But research from the United States has shown that doctors usually start talking after about 22 seconds. "Doctors do not risk being swamped by their patients' complaints if they listen until a patient indicates that his or her list of complaints is complete," Langewitz said in a report in the British Medical Journal. When he and his colleagues used a hidden stopwatch to time patients until they were finished talking, the average time was 92 seconds, although elderly patients tended to take longer. "Even in a busy practice driven by time constraints and financial pressure, two minutes of listening should be possible and will be sufficient for nearly 80 percent of patients," Langewitz added.

    瑞士科學家說，醫生應該安靜地傾聽患者講述病情，不要打斷他們。巴塞爾大學醫院的沃爾夫-蘭格維茨醫生認為，大多數患者能在不到兩分鐘的時間內說明自己的病情，很多人還會更快。而美國的研究表明醫生通常在(患者開始講述之后)大約22秒時就開始說話。蘭格維茨在發表于《英國醫學雜志》的報告中說：“醫生應該耐心傾聽，直到患者表示他或她已經講清楚所有病況為止，不用擔心患者的喋喋不休會令他們無所適從。”蘭格維茨和同事用秒表暗中測算患者講完病情所用的時間，發現他們平均要用92秒，盡管老年患者所花的時間通常要多一些。蘭格維茨補充道：“就算醫療業務因時間限制和財政壓力而格外繁忙，兩分鐘的傾聽時間也應該抽得出來，而這對將近80%的患者來說已經足夠了。”

    Remarks：對所有志在助人的“專業人士”來說，這都是值得重視的一個建議。因為教條僵死，而人是活的。人的問題，人自己最清楚。