Clinical studies are beginning to clarify how spirituality and religion can contribute to the coping strategies of many patients with severe, chronic, and terminal conditions. The ethical aspects of physician attention to the spiritual and religious dimensions of patients' experiences of illness require review and discussion. Should the physician discuss spiritual issues with his or her patient...

The physician-patient relationship has changed throughout history, as the role of physician has been transformed. Modern physicians need to be educated on how to use highly specialized knowledge when approaching the patient as a unique and whole person living in a given psychological, social, and material context. This relationship evolved from a paternalistic model to a cooperative-deliberativ...

This essay argues that physicians hold primary ethical responsibility for repairing damaged patient-physician relationships. The first section establishes that the patient-physician relationship has an important influence on patient health and argues that physicians' duty to treat should be understood as including a responsibility to repair broken relationships, regardless of which party was "r...

Psychiatrists often believe they are protected from liability when conducting third-party evaluations in civil litigation. This belief is based on the understanding that a physician-patient relationship is required for liability to be found and the assumption that no physician-patient relationship is created when examinations are conducted at the request of a third party. Historically, many cou...

From ancient Greeks times, researcher had found] that the health and well-being of patients depends upon a joint effort between physician and patient. Patients share their illness with physicians and expect for their care by physician and this relationship is of greatest benefit to patients when they bring medical problems to the attention of their physicians in welltimed and work with their ph...

In sum, beneficence and autonomy must be mutually re-enforcing if the patient's good is to be served, if the physician's ability to serve that good is not to be compromised, and if the physician's moral claim to autonomy and the integrity of the whole enterprise of medical ethics are to be respected.

A physician relations program can enhance an IDS's relationship with both staff and community physicians, leading to an increased referral base and improved physician satisfaction and productivity. A tactical plan is essential for developing such a program. In formulating its plan, the IDS should examine its goals and market opportunities with respect to physicians, as well as its current appro...

BACKGROUND Individuals with somatic preoccupation constitute a substantial number of primary care patients. Somatically preoccupied patients are challenging to primary care physicians for several reasons including patient complaints consuming a great deal of physician time, expense to diagnose and treat and strain on the physician-patient relationship. This paper examines and discusses how disr...

The Canadian Medical Association's More Doctors, More Care campaign seeks to align physician supply targets with policy decisions elsewhere in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Using OECD data for 19 countries to assess the relationship between physician supply and healthcare outcomes, we have determined that there is no association between avoidable mortality a...

Concentration among physician groups has been steadily increasing, which may affect prices for physician services. We assessed the relationship in 2010 between physician competition and prices paid by private preferred provider organizations for fifteen common, high-cost procedures to understand whether higher concentration of physician practices and accompanying increased market power were ass...