Avoiding the Uncanny Valley in Serious Illness Communication: Josh Briscoe

GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine Podcast · Sep 22, 2022 · 50m

Have you ever had that moment when talking to a patient, when you realized that the phrase you just uttered, which you've uttered a hundred times before, came out rote and scripted? Maybe some phrase you learned from a prominent podcast or VitalTalk? And in response, the family or patient looked at you like you were from another planet? Yeah, I've been there too.

Josh Briscoe, our guests on today's podcast, argues that you've entered the Uncanny Valley. In robotics, the Uncanny Valley is that strange almost-human-but-not-quite territory in which humanoid appearing robots repulse us with their…