![]() ![]() We also often use sounds and imaginative play to allow us to gain access to an ear for an examination (“Is there a birdie in there?”). Pediatricians are taught to use the stethoscope to apply pressure to the right lower quadrant under the guise of listening to differentiate acute appendicitis from other less ominous causes of abdominal pain where a patient might still wince throughout the hand palpation but will not during auscultation. The Jendrassik maneuver, or having a patient pull on their interlocked fingers while attempting to elicit reflexes, is misdirection at its core. Health care providers leverage misdirection as well. ![]() Whether using a wave of a wand or a well-timed word, magicians are masters at redirecting eyes to what they want them to look at so they can get away with something they do not want them to see (ie, a secret sleight). Magicians rely on misdirection or the intentional focusing of an audience’s attention on one thing to distract its attention from another. In this perspectives article, I will summarize how health care providers can implement 3 skills long used by magicians, those of misdirection, patter, and force, to build rapport and ultimately increase their ability to perform an examination. Over the last decade, I have taught over 3000 providers how learning to think and act like a magician, even without doing a magic trick, can improve their ability to connect with patients. Whereas I occasionally use a trick to calm an anxious child before an examination, I use the skills of how a magician approaches an audience in every patient encounter. MAGICAL THINKING PROFESSIONAL3, 4 As a professional magician and a pediatrician, I have seen how magic and medicine intersect. In a 2017 review, Lam et al 1 described many ways providers are incorporating magic in medicine, ranging from teaching patients magic tricks for physical therapy 2 to its use as humor therapy as a prophylactic anxiolytic for patients. Recently, the use of magic at the bedside has seen a renaissance of sorts. ![]()
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