Progress in medicine and changes in our society have led to an increasing number of patients with cancer and a change in the doctor-patient relationship. Patients rights are now defined in several countries by laws. The course of cancer involves numerous imaging examinations in which the radiologist is primarily involved. It is often the radiologist who discovers abnormalities and who must brea...

Doctor-patient relationship is a special kind of social. relationship where bonding is planned and carried out with the final objective of helping the patient to achieve the treatment goal. A positive therapeutic relationship encourages active participation of patient in the treatment plan, contributing to success of treatment goals and minimizing malpractice suits. The humanistic approach emph...

The Psychiatric Consultation Service at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) sees medical and surgical inpatients with comorbid psychiatric symptoms and conditions. Such consultations require the integration of medical and psychiatric knowledge. During their thrice-weekly rounds, Dr Stern and other members of the Psychiatric Consultation Service discuss the diagnosis and management of condition...

The notion of consent which rose to the forefront in biomedical ethics as an attempt to safeguard patients' autonomy, is relatively new. The notion itself requires qualification, for it precludes neither duress nor ignorance. More seriously, I argue here that consent is redundant except in situations where paternalism prevails. Paradoxically, these are the very situations where it may be diffic...

Having good communication skills is essential for doctors to establish good doctor patient relationship. Not surprisingly, many undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and training programmes have made the attainment of good communication skills a core requirement. With the increase in demand from patients who value doctors who are patient centred (who spend time and listen to them), t...

In the course of his 1980 Reith Lectures on medical ethics, Ian Kennedy discussed the consumer-provider model as the means by which the patient-physician relationship might be regulated, with the patient as consumer having a major role in establishing, monitoring, and enforcing standards of medical practice. Little, a psychiatrist, agrees that such consumer involvement would help to redress th...

The first consultation with a patient is the beginning of a doctor-patient relationship. It is thus of major importance to conduct this in a correct and proper way. Consulting with a patient is a complicated skill that is gradually learned during medical training and perfected when one grows into one’s role as a doctor. The importance of an adequate consultation constitutes a strong argument to...