This book offers an easy-to-read, yet comprehensive introduction to practical issues in doctor-patient relationships in a typical low- and middle-income country setting in India, examining in detail the reasons for erosion of trust and providing guidance on potential research areas in the field. It strikes a balance between empirical work and theoretical normative analysis, while adopting mixed-method research in exploring important constructs in the doctor-patient relationship, such as trust, solidarity, advocacy, patient-centeredness, privacy, and confidentiality. Since the concept of trust has direct implications for the ethical practice of medicine, the book is a valuable resource for academics and researchers in the field of medical, clinical, and applied ethics.

Autorentext
Dr. Vijayaprasad Gopichandran currently works at the Department of Community Medicine, ESIC Medical College and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Science and Research, KK Nagar, Chennai. His areas of interest include non-communicable disease epidemiology, health communication, doctorpatient relationships, and medical and public health ethics. He serves as an editor for the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics since 2014. He is also a consultant for the World Health Organization for developing ethical guidelines for public health surveillance and developing a curriculum for training in ethics of implementation research. He has more than 17 years of primary care clinical work experience in outpatient and inpatient settings and 9 years of clinical experience in community outreach projects. He has been actively involved in numerous community-based epidemiological and bioethics research projects, leading to over 50 publications in peer reviewed national and international journals.

Inhalt

1. Introduction
2. Trust as a value in the doctor patient relationship
3. Meaning of trust in doctors
4. What influences patients' trust in doctors?
5. Trust metrics
6. Application of trust measures
7. Ethics of trust, trustworthiness and the doctor-patient relationship
8. Trust in doctors as a quality improvement measure
9. To trust or not to trust
10. Conclusion