Patient-Physician Relationship

Contents: A note/Chhanda Gupta. Acknowledgement. Introduction/Ratna Dutta Sharma. 1. Doctor-patient relationship: nature and boundaries/Debashis Chatterjee. 2. Doctor-patient relationship: ethical principles vs. socio-cultural factors/Pushpa Misra. 3. Culture as determinant of patient-physician relationship in Ayurveda/Amit Kumar Sharma. 4. Religion (Islam) and sex as determinant of physician-patient relationship/S.Y. Khan. 5. Doctor-patient relationship: a Homeopath\'s appraisal/Swaraj Mazumdar. 6. Concept of Indigenous medicine/Sashinungla. 7. Caraka and the notification of the Indian Medical Council on Physician-patient relationship: a comparative study/Ratna Dutta Sharma. 8. Non-reason, madness, mental health science and the "Ethics of Psychoanalysis"/Anup Kumar Dhar and Ranjita Biswas. 9. Shades of confidentiality in physician-patient relationship in the context of mental health/Somdatta Bhattacharyya. 10. A glimpse into the domain of consent in the doctor-patient relationship -- is it a myth or a reality?/Nandini Banerjee. 11. Patient-physician relationship for conducting a clinical trial: a look on ethical aspects and role of statistical designs/Gopaldeb Chattopadhyay. 12. Medicine and law: in the perspective of physician-patient relationship/Malay Kumar Basu. 13. Status of patients and physicians in Indian scenario: Its improvement for delivery of better health care/Bansi Badan Mukhopadhyay. 14. Some feminist concerns about medical practice/Shefali Moitra. The contributors. Index.

"The papers presented at a workshop on "patient-physician relationship", organized by Department of Philosophy, Jadavpur University, have thinkers from various disciplines like religion, philosophy and law discussing a range of issues involved in patient-physician understanding. The concept is viewed in the modern context as well as keeping the indigenous thought tradition in mind. The papers examine the nature and limits of the patient-physician relationship, issues relating to medical ethics, the working of consent and confidentiality, and the link between law and medicine. They look into the role of culture as a determining factor in the patient-physician relationship and the impact of religious beliefs and values on the relationship. They stress the need for a harmonious and balanced relation between the patient and the physician and importance of communication in patient-physician relationship.

The experts specially throw light on feminist concerns about medical practice, such as the need for treatment referring to gender-related differences, and examine the way individual characteristics of doctors and patients affect the way they relate to each other. They emphasise on patients being educated and enlightened to be able to exercise their rights.

The volume will prove interesting and informative to medical practitioners and researchers as well as general readers." (jacket)