The Focus of Medical Care

Abstract

We alluded to the separation of the disease from the patient in Chap. 1 as an important step in the relief of suffering and clarifying our different roles in caring for the patient. The resulting three elements in healthcare and their main relationships are the physician (or other healthcare worker), the patient, and the disease, with the relationship of the physician to disease denoted as curing and the relationship of the physician to the patient denoted as healing. Each of these aspects of medical care individually and in different combinations can become the primary focus of medical care.