Chronic illnesses, vulnerability, and uncertainty

The goal of this chapter is to describe some of the recent challenges that modern medicine is facing using patient-centered medicine as a theoretical frame of reference. First, the work will describe the origin, the development, and the main implications of patient-centered medicine (PCM). Then, it will address the critical increase of chronic illnesses and how PCM could be the best-suited theoretical framework for enhancing patient engagement and coping with chronicity. Additionally, it will address the difficulties raised by increased uncertainty in medical practice, especially from the physicians' point of view. Finally, a relationship-centered care (RCC) will be proposed as a more effective theoretical perspective than PCM to deal with uncertainty and its impact on the patients' and physicians' inner life.