Background Empathy is essential for effective doctor-patient communication. It enables doctors to understand patients\' emotions and concerns, facilitating personalized care and support. Empathy can be cultivated through various methods and training programs. Objective The study aims to assess the effectiveness of a multimodal intervention involving interactive lectures, peer role-play, and guided reflection in enhancing empathy levels among second-year medical undergraduate students in India. Methods This study utilized a questionnaire-based, pre- and post-test interventional design. Seventy-nine second-year medical students were included after obtaining their informed consent. The students received the intervention through an interactive lecture on communication skills, role-play on selected case studies, and guided reflection. The empathy levels were assessed using the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) before and after the intervention. The Mann-Whitney U test was utilized to compare pre-test and post-test TEQ scores. A univariate analysis of variance was conducted to explore the relationship between demographic variables and post-test TEQ scores. Statistical significance was considered at p ≤ 0.05. Results The TEQ score improved significantly (p=0.009) after the intervention. The univariate analysis indicated that gender, style of education, and place of residence did not have a statistically significant impact on post-test scores. Conclusion The study demonstrates that a multimodal intervention significantly enhances the empathy level of medical students, highlighting the potential of focused interventions to reduce gender disparities in empathy levels. There were no significant differences in empathy scores based on gender, place of residence, or schooling, suggesting the intervention\'s benefits may apply to all medical students.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to validate the Korean version of the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and to determine its suitability for the measurement of empathy in medical students.
METHODS: The study sample was Year 1 and 2 medical students at two medical schools on six-year undergraduate medical programs in South Korea. The study participants completed the Korean TEQ, which has a single factor structure and consists of 16 items; responses are scored using a 5-point Likert scale, giving a maximum possible score of 64. Psychometric validation of the questionnaire was performed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and the goodness of fit test. Average variance extracted was calculated to establish convergent validity, and associations between factors and construct reliability were analyzed to establish discriminant validity. Cronbach\'s alpha values were utilized for reliability analysis.
RESULTS: A total of 279 students completed and returned the questionnaire (a 96.2% response rate). Participant empathy scores ranged from 20 to 60 (M = 44.6, SD = 7.36). Empathy scores were higher for females than males (p < .05). The cumulative variance of the Korean TEQ was 32%, indicating that its explanatory power was rather weak. Consequently, goodness-of-fit testing was performed on four hypothetical models, among which a three-factorial structure consisting of 14 items demonstrated satisfactory fit indices and explained 55% of the variance. Reliability estimates of the three subscales were also satisfactory (Cronbach\'s α = .71-.81). This three-factorial model was validated by confirmatory factor analysis and demonstrated adequate convergent and discriminant validity.
CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated psychometric validation of the Korean TEQ for measuring medical students\' empathy. We suggest a modified 14-item model with a three-factorial structure, which demonstrated better psychometric properties than the original scale.

BACKGROUND: As an important feature in patient-physician communication for both primary and clinical care, empathy is one of the basic competencies that physicians should possess. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the level of empathy among medical students in all years of medical training using two different instruments: the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (for clinical empathy level) and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (for general empathy level).
METHODS: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in 2017-2018 academic year with students studying at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine. Data collection form, Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) was applied to the students by the researchers. The statistical analysis was carried out by using IBM-SPSS version 23 for Mac OS. T-test, ANOVA test, Spearman and Pearson correlation analysis were used for comparisons.
RESULTS: The mean TEQ score of the students was 52.8/65 and the JSPE-S score was 80.3/100. TEQ scores of students increased up to 4th year and then decreased, but the difference between the years was not statistically significant. The third year students\' JSPE-S scores were significantly higher than that of the sixth year students.
CONCLUSIONS: While the clinical empathy levels of medical students decreased significantly after 3rd year, the general empathy levels decreased less. This result shows us that we should review our medical education curriculum and educational environment, and should initiate initiatives, and devote more time to empathy education in order to prevent the decrease in empathy level and increase empathy during medical education.

Empathy is an essential aspect in the delivery of quality nutrition care and promoting better outcomes in patients. With an increased emphasis of patient-centred care in dietetic practice, empathy should underpin the construct of the curriculum in dietetic education. The present study investigated the empathy level of dietetic interns through self-reporting measures and patients\' perception.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 57 dietetic interns and 99 patients from primary and tertiary health care settings. The dietetic interns completed the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) while the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure was self-administered by patients. Socio-demographic information of participants was collected.
The dietetic interns\' mean (standard deviation [SD]) TEQ scores were 46.90 ± 5.28 and 47.78 ± 5.34 in primary and tertiary care, respectively. CARE measure scores rated by patients in the primary care were 38.61 ± 8.38 and for tertiary setting, the scores were slightly higher (39.47 ± 7.65). The settings, gender, ethnicity and period of internship did not affect dietetic interns\' empathy level. In primary care, CARE scores were significantly different between patients\' age grouping (P = 0.007).
Findings from the present study showed that patients\' age significantly affected their perception of dietetic interns\' empathy in primary health care. These preliminary findings could facilitate an understanding of the level of empathy amongst interns for consideration in the future design of dietetic training.

The health-care providers\' empathy has been linked to better patient outcomes. The increased demand for dietetics services has called for dietitians to examine their clinical practices and encounters with patients. To date, there are limited studies published on empathy among dietitians. Hence, this study aimed to determine the clinical dietitians\' empathy level in Malaysia.
Using a purposive sampling method, this study was conducted on dietitians practising in the Malaysian hospitals (government and private). The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ), a validated 16-item questionnaire was self-administered, either by online survey method or face-to-face method. Additional information on gender, ethnicity, years of experience and percentage of working time spent on clinical, administrative and other areas were collected.
A total of 69 dietitians participated in the study (private (n = 36) and government (n = 33)). The dietitians\' mean total TEQ scores were 49.72 ± 5.62 (score ranged between 35 and 63). Significant difference of mean total TEQ scores was found between dietitians from private (51.06 ± 5.26) and government hospitals (48.27 ± 5.72). There was no significant difference in the level of empathy by gender, ethnicity, years of experience and percentage of time spent on clinical consultations, administration or others while at work.
Results from this study showed that there were differences in empathy level of Malaysian dietitians by work setting. This preliminary finding serves as a baseline for future studies and could facilitate the development of dietetics education in Malaysia.