Caring for Patients ─ A Critique of the Medical Model

"See your patient as a person, not a disease." This is the essential message of an experienced and compassionate physician who questions the prevailing medical model of patient care - that every illness has a physical cause that can be identified and treated medically - and who argues for the necessity of taking the psychological and social circumstances of the patient into account in the process of diagnosis and treatment.

The late Allen Barbour, M.D., was Professor of Clinical Medicine at Stanford University. He served as Chief of the Stanford Diagnostic Clinic at the Stanford Medical School from 1971 until his retirement in 1981. During his tenure, he received six awards for outstanding clinical teaching.