Steven K. Shama wants your doctor to give you a hug.

The Boston dermatologist just left his job as Instructor in Dermatology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and scaled back his private practice to write a book and travel around the country as a motivational speaker.

Shama says that, stressed by HMO's, malpractice suits and regulations, physicians have forgotten the joys of medicine. He wants doctors to remember what their job's are all about: compassion and humanity.

"We're doing less of the caring kinds of things we should be doing in medicine," he says. "We look for the broken part, we don't look at the whole."

Now, he aims to reverse the trend--one inspirational speech at a time.

Shama, who has been affiliated with HMS for over 20 years, has given more than 100 workshops and speeches around the country since he started in the motivation business five years ago.

He now has a promotional brochure ("Dr. Shama's inspirational, fun-filled programs will give you hope and teach you constructive, easy ways to make positive changes in your life as a health care provider," it claims), folders of testimonials from satisfied customers and a growing draft for a book on his philosophy of medicine. His suite of prepared talks and role-playing workshops now go for $1,000 to $3,000 a pop.

The Philosophy