ABSTRACT
Talcott Parsons’s concept of the sick role details the obligations of patients and physicians toward each other. Patients cooperate with doctors, and doctors attempt to return patients to as normal a level of functioning as possible. This chapter reviews models of interaction, misunderstandings in communication, and cultural differences in presenting symptoms, and problems in patient compliance or adherence. The mutual participation model especially applies to the management of chronic illness in which the patient works with the doctor as a full participant in controlling the affliction. Male doctors were less influenced by a patient’s gender in making a diagnosis, but both male and female physicians paid particular attention to a male patient’s age and considered more age-related diseases for men than women. Telemedicine is a relatively new form of doctor–patient interaction that takes place with the doctor in one locale and the patient in another.
