The physician-patient relationship in China is highly strained. According to the latest survey conducted by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association (CMDA, 2015), 60% of medical personnel had suffered verbal abuse, and 13% had suffered physical violence in 2014. Initially, mainstream news media often blamed physicians for being irresponsible, immoral, or simply incompetent. Lately, the tide has been reversed and patients were often portrayed as being too demanding, too greedy, and too unreasonable. China’s medical schools start to teach courses in physician-patient communication based on western textbooks and theories. However, attributing the problematic physician-patient relationship to individual stakeholders’ competence or morality does not address the root of physician-patient conflicts in China: the rise of health consumerism and the change in the culture of health.

In this study, we examined the professional identities of physicians and their perceptions of the physician-patient against the backdrop of the rise of health consumerism in China. We conducted in-depth interviews with physicians in China during the course of two years to create a new theoretical perspective for the study of physician-patient communication in China. We argued that because of the marketization of healthcare in China in the last two decades, the traditional bureaucratic relationship between physicians and patients based on implicit trust was gradually replaced by an arm’s length relationship characterized by self-interest, opportunism, and mistrust. This is the cause of many communication problems and conflicts between physician and patients in China.

Tang, L., & Guan, M. (2018). Rise of health consumerism in China and its effects on physician’s professional identity and physician-patient relationship. Health Communication, 33(5), 636-642. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2017.1290015. [Read full text here]