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.

瑞士科学家说，医生应该安静地倾听患者讲述病情，不要打断他们。巴塞尔大学医院的沃尔夫-兰格维茨医生认为，大多数患者能在不到两分钟的时间内说明自己的病情，很多人还会更快。而美国的研究表明医生通常在(患者开始讲述之后)大约22秒时就开始说话。兰格维茨在发表于《英国医学杂志》的报告中说：“医生应该耐心倾听，直到患者表示他或她已经讲清楚所有病况为止，不用担心患者的喋喋不休会令他们无所适从。”兰格维茨和同事用秒表暗中测算患者讲完病情所用的时间，发现他们平均要用92秒，尽管老年患者所花的时间通常要多一些。兰格维茨补充道：“就算医疗业务因时间限制和财政压力而格外繁忙，两分钟的倾听时间也应该抽得出来，而这对将近80%的患者来说已经足够了。”

Remarks：对所有志在助人的“专业人士”来说，这都是值得重视的一个建议。因为教条僵死，而人是活的。人的问题，人自己最清楚。