Prof David Cranston, Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Oxford speaks with Prof Denis Noble. They consider whether changes in medicine over recent decades and the current pressures on doctors have started to dehumanise the profession, leading to ever shorter consultation times which can negatively impact on the doctor patient relationship. Prof Cranston is also an expert on Sir William Osler, the famous Oxford medic who believed that it’s the patient who will largely be able to tell the doctor their diagnosis, and who pioneered the more human face of medical practice.