Professionally important notions in the doctor-patient communication

Bioethics does not only aim to solve the practical problems, related to the development of biomedical technologies and the study of the ethical aspects of the doctor-patient communication, but also to search for the cultural grounds of these relations. The contemporary situation in medicine and Public Health, which both try to develop the most effective, socially just and ethically acceptable models of doctor-patient interaction make this research urgent and relevant. The authors rest on the methodological principle, according to which medicine is the integral part of culture, and includes not only medical knowledge and methods of care, but also the descriptive models of doctor-patient relationship. The behavior of doctors, even if they do not realize this, is determined by ideological models, which, in their turn, form professionally important thinking patterns. Apparently, perpetual questions of medicine such as: what should treatment focus on - a disease or a patient; is the development of medical technologies an absolute good; can clinical experience and evidence-based medicine be partners; are the skills of effective communication with patients still important or out-dated, etc. -cannot be solved beyond historical and cultural context.

medical culture, the cultural context of health, doctor-patient communication, professional and ethical principles