Introduction Empathy is the ability to understand other people's experiences, emotions and feelings, and to communicate this understanding to others. It is a multidimensional construct comprising an affective element, having sensitivity and concern for other persons, and a cognitive element, to be able to understand feelings of other persons. 1 Medicine is a profession for serving humanity. Empathy has been related to improved patient outcome in the practice of medicine, Physicians' empathetic behaviour may result in increased diagnostic accuracy and clinical competence, 2 decreased emotional distress and improved quality of life and increased clinical outcome in patients. 3 Moreover, empathy has a positive influence on physicians themselves. It has been found that physicians with higher empathy report lesser degree of burnout, and higher clinical competence ratings, and greater feeling of well-being. 4 Thus, empathy, being an integral component of medical profession, needs to be studied in medical students. 5 A mean empathy score of 115 was reported for American medical students, 6 109.6 for Chinese, 7 107.8 for Indian medical students, 8 110.4 for Bangladeshi students, which was found to be higher than Japanese 104, Iranian 105.1 and Kuwaiti students 104. 9 Empathy level has also been associated with gender. Various studies have reported higher empathy levels among females compared to male medical students. 1 Several studies from the West have found a decrease in empathy level as students progressed from preclinical to clinical years. 10,11 However, a few studies have also demonstrated stable empathy scores as students progressed through undergraduate medical school. 1 Medical educationists all over the world have shown their concerns over this trend of decline in empathy among medical students, residents and physicians as seen in a large number of studies. 12 Empathy is believed to be measurable and teachable, thus one of the challenges for medical educationists is to improve empathy among medical students for patients. 9 Very few studies have been done in this regard in Pakistan, and even in those studies instruments used for measuring empathy levels were not specific to medical education. The current study was planned to determine empathy level among undergraduate medical students with respect to gender and the year of study. Subjects and Methods The quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted from December, 2015, to January, 2016, at J Pak Med Assoc 1149 RESEARCH ARTICLE Empathy levels among undergraduate medical students in Pakistan, a cross sectional study using Jefferson scale of physician empathy Aneela Shaheen, 1 Muhammad Arshad Mahmood, 2 Muhammad Zia-ul-Miraj, 3 Madeha Ahmad 4 Abstract Objective: To determine empathy level among undergraduate medical students with respect to gender and the year of study. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the University College of Medicine and Dentistry, Lahore, Pakistan, from December, 2015, to January, 2016, and comprised undergraduate medical students of either gender in all the five years of their course. Data was collected using the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy. Data was analysed using SPSS 20. Results: Of the 260 students, 153(58.9%) were females and 107(41.1%) were males. Overall mean empathy level was 90.63±11.55. Females scored higher than males (p<0.05). The highest empathy level was seen among the First Year medical students 93.39±9.11, while the lowest was seen in Third Year students 87.71±13.94. Conclusion: Overall empathy level was seriously low, indicating the need for curricular reforms. Keywords: Empathy, Medical students, Residents, JSPE, Interventions. (JPMA 70: 1149; 2020) DOI: https://doi.org/10.5455/JPMA.301593 1 Department of Pediatrics, University College of Medicine, The University of Lahore, 2 Department of Ophthalmology, 3 Department of Medical Education, 4 Department of Physiology, Al-Aleem Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. Correspondence: Aneela shaheen. Email: aneela13.5@outlook.com