ABSTRACT
The first component of the patient-centered clinical method addresses the failure of conventional medical practice in meeting patients’ perceived needs and expectations by proposing that clinicians cast a wider gaze beyond disease, to include an exploration of health and the illness experience of their patients. This chapter defines the terms health, disease, and the illness experience, and describes their interconnectedness in a diagram. It presents the clinical method to help clinicians explore these issues with patients. Finally, the chapter provides the literature and powerful quotations justifying and elaborating the dimensions – especially useful for the academic audience.
