Medical humanities play an important role in improving the doctor-patient relationship

Abstract

Doctors in China have been wounded or even killed in frequent violence as conflict between doctors and patients has intensified. China has had a massive dearth of medical students over the past decade and doctors are dissatisfied with conditions in their profession. Conditions in medicine are not conducive to medical reform. This paper notes that the main factors affecting the doctor-patient relationship are a lack of humanity in medicine, the predominance of techniques and technologies, and inappropriate administration of hospitals. These factors are related to a lack of medical humanities. This paper describes several steps to make medicine more humane and to help establish a harmonious doctor-patient relationship, including improved humanities education for doctors and medical students, ending the predominance of techniques and technologies, bringing back "humanity" in medicine, and improving the administration of hospitals.

Keywords: Doctor-patient conflict; doctor-patient relationship; medical humanities.