For historical reasons, much of the attention to the doctor-patient relationship has been based on the concept of informed consent. The concepts of information and consent are both problematic, and as a result, consent forms and advanced directives often undermine the goal that led to the consent doctrine. A better ethic can be derived from stressing the connection between doctor and patient an...

The text is an analysis of the relational complex in a therapeutic space. Analysis started from the need to perform a medical act depending also on understanding these aspects. In the therapeutic process, diagnosis and treatment in their classical sense are just two of the aspects of a relational type interpersonal reality, which is much more complex. In fact, doctor-patient relationship is par...

Three models of the physician patient relationship are examined: the authoritative, the contractual, and the fiduciary. The author prefers the fiduciary model because it requires no prior assumptions about the patient's ability to make fully informed decisions. He analyzes how, using this model, certain acts of euthanasia by a physician may be considered supererogatory acts that are consisten...

In January 2007 the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) launched a national chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) awareness and education campaign: ‘Learn More Breathe Better’. This campaign is “finally moving [COPD] from obscurity to prominence” with the purpose of sending the message that COPD, although serious, is treatable, but also “to narrow the gap between what is co...

BACKGROUND This review's goal was to determine how differences between physicians and patients in race, ethnicity and language influence the quality of the physician-patient relationship. METHODS We performed a literature review to assess existing evidence for ethnic and racial disparities in the quality of doctor-patient communication and the doctor-patient relationship. RESULTS We found c...