Obligation: The Changing Physician-Patient Relationship and Healthcare Reforms in China (2023)

This book explores the shifting nature of physician-patient relationship in China. Specifically, it takes the physician-patient relationship during the barefoot doctor program in 1968-1978, the marketization of healthcare in 1978-2002, and the healthcare reform in 2003-2020 as three historical periods, illustrating how the nature of the physician-patient relationship has changed over time. Analyzing the ways in which law and social policies--involving the doctrine of informed consent, public hospital reform, and systemic healthcare reform--have in different ways shaped and changed the practices of physicians and patients, which illustrates how the bond between them threatens to collapse. With a uniquely vivid depiction of Chinese healthcare issues, this book will interest sociologists, China scholars and more.