If medicine is so great, why are people getting sick? Why don’t people turn up for follow-up checks or take their pills properly? And why do patients sometimes seem to come from another planet?

Medicine doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens between doctors and patients, who seem to inhabit very different worlds. It’s not enough to think about medicine. We need to think more about patients.

Originally published in 2001 and reissued here with a new preface, Thinking About Patients promotes a multidimensional model of medicine. It offers a practical guide to the psychological and social processes involved in practicing medicine and in being a patient. It will help us to return to what medicine is all about – using our skills to serve patients.