RESTRICTING COMMUNICATION HINDERS THE PATIENT PHYSICIAN RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

Laws on the patient-physician relationship are closely related to ethics because they reflect the ethical principles that govern the practice of medicine. In fact, many laws are based on ethical principles, such as informed consent, confidentiality, and the duty to provide competent medical care. However, such laws when restricting communication between patients and physicians, hinder the employment of various models of the patient physician relationship, thereby creating an unproductive interference. Examples of such interferences include confusing patients, compromising informed consent, mandating outdated treatment protocol, and criminalizing evidence-based care.1 Furthermore, no model of the patient physician relationship is superior to any other, they all describe highly interpretive, differing roles. Instead, the patient physician relationship should be up for the patient’s interpretation which the physician would then adopt. In what follows I will explore how the aims of medicine influence patient physician interaction. I will also discuss why these models are subjectively derived and why a patient’s interpretation is most valid. Finally, I will discuss how a physician might integrate patient preference when developing this relationship.