A 34-year-old man fighting for his life in the intensive care unit is on an artificial respirator for over a month. Could it be that his chance of getting off the respirator is not how much his nurses know, but rather how much they care?

A 75-year-old woman is heroically saved by a major trauma center, only to be discharged and fatally struck by a car while walking home from the hospital. Could a lack of compassion from the hospital staff have been a factor in her death?

Compelling new research shows that health care is in the midst of a compassion crisis. But the pivotal question is this: Does compassion really matter?

In Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference, physician scientists Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli uncover the eye-opening data that compassion could be a wonder drug for the 21st century.

Now, for the first time ever, a rigorous review of the science - coupled with captivating stories from the front lines of medicine - demonstrates that human connection in health care matters in astonishing ways. Never before has all the evidence been synthesized together in one place.

You will see compelling evidence that:

• Compassion has vast benefits for patients across a wide variety of conditions
• Missed opportunities for compassion can have devastating health effects
• Compassion can help reverse the cost crisis in health care
• Compassion can be an antidote for burnout among health care providers
• Forty seconds of compassion can save a life

After seeing all the evidence, the answer is crystal clear: Compassion matters...in not only meaningful, but measurable ways.