The authors of the article focus on empathy as one of the dispositions related to the emotional functioning in the process of communication, which plays an important role in determining success in a profession. It is believed that people with higher empathy tend to solve professional, personal problems more readily in subject-subject relationships. The technique for diagnosing the empathic abilities of medical students was based on a questionnaire developed by V.V. Boyko. Methods of analytical and synthetic study of scientific and methodological literature, questioning are applied. For empirical data percent distribution and ranking are used. As a result of the study, the following levels of empathic abilities in medical students were evaluated: rational, intuitive, attitudes, penetration, identification. The authors of the article came to the conclusion that the empathic abilities of medical students are important and influential factors of communication not only in the doctor-patient model, but also in their interpersonal communication, academic performance in educational activities.