The meaning of persons in medicine

Abstract:

Modern health care is at risk of dehumanizing the patient encounter. Pressures of containing costs, maintaining efficiency, and benchmarking with scientific advancements may blur the essential responsibility of medicine: to care for the sick person. Mechanisms common in most health systems have already transformed the sick person from an individual to a numerated entity. Reflecting on three personal vignettes, the subtlety of this trend is highlighted and the challenge to maintain humanness is explored.

Keywords::

• ethics
• patient focus
• commitment
• clinical care
• humanness