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Back to the Past for the Future of Medicine: Special Series on Bedside Medicine.

The Southern Medical Journal is pleased and honored to publish a special series on bedside medicine and to welcome Drs Andrew Elder and Abraham Verghese as the guest editors. These two world-class humanists, clinicians, and medical educators are leading the effort to re-emphasize the critical importance of the physical examination and bedside encounter with patients. I have personally and professionally benefitted frommy friendship with these physicians, while learning a great deal from them about the preeminence of the patient–physician relationship and the joys of medicine. Dr Verghese is a renowned author and educator and has touched the lives of many individuals in a special, uplifting manner. Dr Elder travels the globe, facilitating the clinical education of physicians and developing certifying processes in many countries. They have selected excellent authors for this special series andwe appreciate each professionalwho has contributed to this series. From my own perspective, I have come to understand that my ethical and professional persona was developed early in my medical education as a student in the 1960s. Although I was blessed with many admirable role models, three educators stand out as having had major influences on the kind of physician I became—a pediatric oncologist (who also was an ordained minister), a general surgeon (one of the kindest surgeons I have ever known), and an endocrinologist (who was a master of the bedside encounter). At the time I likely did not understand the impact these individuals were having, and would continue to have even after their passing, on the development of my integrity, ethics, and empathy as a physician and surgeon. I believe it is this impact on current and future physicians that Drs Elder and Verghese and their colleagues aim to reestablish through re-emphasizing bedside medicine as the fundamental element of the patient encounter.