In this narrative, Dr. Martina Kelly reflects on the role of “touch” in medicine, a word that seems inappropriately intimate but also a routine part of clinical practice.Dr. Kelly is a family doctor, working in the Dept of Family Medicine of the University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine in Calgary, Alberta. Her Humanities Encounters article is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. It is called "Learning to touch."To read the article: www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.180284-----------------------------------For more stories like this one, get your copy of CMAJ’s Encounters Book. This anthology of prose and poetry of some 100 Canadian authors including Drs. David Goldbloom, Shane Neilson, Allan Peterkin and Monica Kidd, has been specially curated and includes a study guide. https://shop.cma.ca/products/encounters-----------------------------------To request a transcript of this podcast, contact cmajgroup@cmaj.caSubscribe to CMAJ Podcasts on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app. You can also follow us directly on our SoundCloud page or you can visit www.cmaj.ca/page/multimedia/podcasts.