Avoiding the Uncanny Valley in Serious Illness Communication: Josh Briscoe

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 close yet still “off” appearance.  Coming off as rote and scripted during a serious illness conversation can have a similar off-putting impact on patients and families.  Today we talk with Josh about how to anticipate and avoid the uncanny valley.  And talk about times when we’ve fallen into it.  

Key message: Listen to the music.  All the time. ;)

Links:

-Uncanny Valley post on Josh’s fantastic substack Notes from a Family Meeting

-Anticipatory corpse book mentioned several times on the podcast

-GeriPal post about teaching using YouTube (some links are old and don’t work, but you get the idea, I recently gave a spontaneous talk to the palliative care fellows and was able to find the video snippets)

-Ira Byock’s 4 things that matter most

-@AlexSmithMD