The relevance of humanism in medical profession

Humanism is a system of beliefs concerned with the needs of people. Patients have clinical care needs as well as interpersonal care needs. Clinical care requires skills of diagnosing and treating. Interpersonal care requires qualities of integrity, honesty, respect, empathy, compassion and altruism. With continuing advances in science and technology, diagnosis and treatment are becoming more and more sophisticated and interpersonal care is neglected. Humanism in medicine aims to promote interpersonal care of patients. In this article, rationale and evolution of humanism are described, humanism in medical profession is discussed and ways for promoting humanism in medical profession are enumerated