Search all of the Society for Participatory Medicine website:Search

The Journal of Participatory Medicine has just published “The Patient Will See You Now,” a thought-provoking and rather moving narrative by John Krueger, MD. In telling his own story of becoming and maturing as a physician, the author persuasively argues that the key to practicing patient-centered medicine is devoting time to listen to patients’ stories and to cultivate a human relationship between clinicians and patients.

My personal favorites among several quotable lines in this article:

“Pressure that physicians feel to maintain a good business model threatens to overlook a critical part of our ‘product.’ In health care, the patient’s story and the relationship have ironically become the obstacle, rather than the objective.”

and

“Health care providers must embrace the goals of improved safety, efficiency, effectiveness, and timeliness, but must also realize that health care does not own health and care. If it is owned by anyone, it is owned by patients.”

Happy New Year, dear readers! May 2012 bring us closer to attaining patient-centered care.

 

Please consider supporting the Society by joining us today! Thank you.

Kathleen O'Malley

Kathleen O'Malley has served as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Participatory Medicine since 2010. Before that, she worked as an acquisitions editor and managed the Publishers’ Circle journal licensing program at Medscape for many years. She was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in 2008 and continues to thrive, thanks in great part to a caring group of surgeons, physicians, nurses, social workers and fellow survivors who all practice participatory medicine.

Donate