TY - JOUR T1 - Reflections on the doctor–patient relationship: from evidence and experience JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 793 LP - 801 VL - 55 IS - 519 AU - Moira Stewart Y1 - 2005/10/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/55/519/793.abstract N2 - As an epidemiologist/researcher in a Department of Family Medicine, I have been privileged to work beside GPs for 25 years. In the research that I do on doctor–patient relationships, quality of care, clinical outcomes and integrated health services research, I have witnessed magical moments in clinical encounters of patients with GPs, witnessed the mystery of general practice, and witnessed patients’ evolution from health to illness and back. I have observed countless times how doctors help patients put the fragments of their lives back together into a whole.Having watched whole-person medical practice, I have thought about the various elements that it requires. One is an openness on the part of the doctor to learning about all of the dimensions of a patient's problems. Another is a willingness to meet the patient at an emotional level, not only in order to have an understanding of the problems, but also to facilitate a healing of the whole person. I have learned, therefore, that this way of being a doctor requires engaging at both the cognitive level (the doctor will learn more about the patient), and the emotional level (the doctor will feel the patient's pain and suffering), but also tapping into a doctor's intuition, the creative side, which puts together complex webs of different types of information (cognitive, emotional and intuitive) into a new insight, not singly, but in communion with the patient.The team of GPs with whom I work, believe that practising medicine that heals, encompasses a change of heart as well as a change of mind. These doctors began their enquiry into the essential features of such medical practice through observation, reflection and several years of teaching. It was the observation of patients and their responses that is similar to James Mackenzie's legacy. In the 19th century, Sir James … ER -