Physician-Patient Relationship

Quality of the physician-patient relationship is essential to reach the best therapeutic outcome. Founded on listening, empathy, regard, physical examination and language clearness and sincerity, it tends to establish trust, which is the main requisite of patient acceptance and therapeutic alliance. Its favourable effect depends mainly on the improvement of therapeutic observance, and so on its own property, related to placebo effects, and especially used in the treatment of non organic functional disorders. A physician today has to confront several difficulties: patient more informed and critical; time insufficiency because the weight of administrative duties; work in teams, which disperses and impairs the relationship; and, more, the technologies primacy. Solutions for these questions are to be found in physicians training, teams planning, and responsible use of technologies, which never exonerates of necessary face to face, and, for those proceeding from artificial intelligence, requires always human guaranty of the physician. (C) 2021 l'Academie nationale de medecine. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.