A new book by retired internist and medical researcher Dr. Neil Farber ’72 addresses what he sees as one of the most urgent crises in American healthcare: a breakdown in human connection.
 
Farber arrived at F&M in the footsteps of his late older brother, Dennis Farber ’60, and earned his degree in biology. He recalls conversations with guidance counselors about the College’s reputation as a pre-med powerhouse, and he was pleased to see the experience lived up to the hype. His lifelong love of research began at F&M, with late nights spent in the lab researching how algae metabolized sugar under different lighting conditions. 
 
Farber earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed a residency in internal medicine. He spent 28 years practicing in Philadelphia area hospitals before serving 12 years as a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Over his career, he was named a San Diego Top Doctor five times, served on the FDA Non-Prescription Drug Advisory Committee, and published more than 60 papers.

"I knew that there had to be a better way to sensitively and empathically give bad news to patients and their loved ones."

Dr. Neil Farber '72

For decades, Farber researched and taught patient-physician communication. He gave practitioners guidance on how to coax information from those seeking care, helping to uncover information that can more clearly inform a diagnosis and treatment plan. It was a useful strategy for the physician, but not one that prioritized the patient experience. He experienced a dramatic change of perspective after experiencing one of his life’s most difficult moments.

In 1997, Farber’s late wife, Terry, was diagnosed with brain cancer. The cold, impersonal way the initial news was delivered deeply distressed them, and he realized that his previous approach to patient communications was limited. Years later, his own serious health scare reaffirmed his belief that physicians and patients needed tools and support to mitigate serious problems disrupting the healthcare industry: physicians’ hyperfixation on insurance protocols, reduced patient interaction due to billing and paperwork commitments, and communication failures that prioritizes efficiency over empathy.

“I knew that there had to be a better way to sensitively and empathically give bad news to patients and their loved ones,” Farber said, reflecting on his career pivot to teaching healthcare professionals how to deliver difficult diagnoses with compassion. 

In Treating a Broken System: A Physician’s Cure For the Healthcare Crisis (2026, Boyle & Dalton), Farber draws on more than four decades of medical practice, research, and education to examine how physician burnout and poor communication delay care and erode patient trust. He shares how a decades-long push toward efficiency and maximizing profits resulted in a system of what he calls “assembly-line medicine” that leads to physician burnout, high error rates, and delays in patient care. 

By introducing patient stories and framing their experiences with data, he explores how the American healthcare system arrived at this point — and what he feels is necessary to teach patients how to advocate for themselves and guide physicians and healthcare administrators to adopt programs that reduce practitioner burnout. 

Farber is optimistic that empowering patients, building communication programs into physician training curricula, and more open collaboration in healthcare systems can turn the tide for the benefit of every constituent.
 
“We have everything we need to solve these problems,” says Farber. “We just have to agree to work together to do it.”
 
Farber is donating all proceeds from the book to the Academy for Communication in Healthcare and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, organizations dedicated to improving communication between physicians and patients.