The Patient As a Person: An Integrated and Systemic Approach to Patient and Disease

In the current era, evidence-based medicine and various supporting technologies dominate everyday clinical practice, according to a disease-centred, as opposed to patient-centred, approach. They have obviously improved the clinical management of diseases and it is therefore unreasonable to think of a medicine in which they are not considered fundamental. In fact, the strength of the new medicine should be to adapt scientific knowledge to a specific clinical case.

This book therefore looks at the prospect of a new 'person' centred medicine, which stands alongside the 'disease' and 'patient' centred medicine, which pays special attention to the subjectivity of scientific knowledge and the relationship between doctor and patient. It is important to emphasise that this book is written by several hands, i.e. by experts from different fields, doctors, philosophers, architects, sociologists, art critics, physicists and engineers. This is with the intention of providing as broad a perspective as possible on the doctor-patient relationship.

Due to its translational and multicultural approach to the subject, the book will be of interest to a wide readership, from medical experts to students, psychologists, philosophers and institutional actors.

Alessandro Pingitore graduated in Medicine and Surgery, and later obtained a PhD in Cardiovascular Physiopathology and a postdoctoral qualification in Cardiovascular Disease. He is currently a permanent scientist at the CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology. His main research fields are the assessment of cardiac function and morphology using non-invasive cardiac imaging, the relationship between thyroid hormone and the heart, and the physiological response to strenuous physical stress in normal or extreme environments. He also has a strong interest in quality of-life related initiatives, wellbeing and cardiovascular prevention. He is author of 178 scientific peer’reviewd articles, 5 books, and 15 book chapters. H Index is 40 (Scopus Source) and overall citations are 6689 (Scopus Source).

Alfonso Maurizio Iacono is professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Pisa. He also taught Philosophy of Science at the University of Rome 1 (Sapienza) and philosophy at the Université de Paris 1 (Sorbonne-Panthéon). He is ex-Dean of the "Facoltà di Lettere e filosofia" of the same University (2003-2009); ex-President of Sistema Museale d’Ateneo (2015-2017). His interests are about relationships among philosophy, politics and anthropology from XVIIIth to XXth century.