The doctor's role

The roles of doctors and their place in society vary from time to time and from country to country, depending on many factors:

Religious and mystical influence
Degree of political authoritarianism
Degree of influence of various health-related lobbies
Social structure: distribution of wealth and social status, caste, racism, sexism, etc.
Physicians' social and financial origins and status
Image of the community
Image of the individual
Education level of the population
...

Schematically, we can see an evolution in Europe:

During antiquity: the patient's duty to take care of himself and to accept treatment from a doctor with religious or sacred authority.
Gradual evolution towards paternalism: the doctor "knows what's good", the patient must obey in his or her own interest
Very recent evolution :
- towards patient autonomy: informed consent, right to health, patient charter, lessening of the doctor's authority
- in countries where healthcare costs have been progressively socialized, various measures aimed at reducing these costs for the state are modifying the doctor's role:
  - loss of physician autonomy: state control over examination and treatment prescriptions
  - development of telemedicine
  - reallocation or delegation of medical procedures to paramedical professions.

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