Miles, A. & Mezzich, J.E. (2011). The care of the patient and the soul of the clinic: person-centered medicine as an emergent model of modern clinical practice. International Journal of Person Centered Medicine 1 (2) 207-222

Abstract

In recent years, there has undoubtedly been an “over-reliance on science” that has led to an unedifying “scientistic medicine” in patient care of most if not all medical disciplines [1]. Although I would not go so far as to say that these circumstances may lead to “an ethical and moral chaos within clinical practice,” I agree with Miles and Mezzich that “while it is imperative that medicine must be actively and continuously informed by science, science cannot function as the base of medicine.” Evidence generated by clinical or, in the early beginnings of research progress, even non-clinical trials can be very helpful, but to impose study results uncritically upon the individual patient would mean to neglect this person’s individuality. The individual needs may, for example, not be consistent with the inclusion criteria of the very study used as the evidence base for the treatment. I therefore welcome, then, the article by Miles and Mezzich, which discusses the need for a more critical reflection on scientific data before or within clinical use and the demand for more humanity in patient care in terms of a person-centered approach.