The aim of this article was to discuss challenges and perspectives in the physician-elderly patient relationship. In interpersonal relations, inherent to medical practice, it is the quality of the encounter that determines its efficiency. Thus, in training and identifying good medical professionals, the physician-elderly patient relationship is essential for promoting quality of care. Physicians should prioritize the feelings and values of elderly patients and their families, encouraging the necessary joint decision-making, that is, democratization of the physician-patient relations hip, reclaiming its humanization. This proposal aspires to the birth of a new image for these professionals, who are responsible for effective health promotion, by considering elderly patients in their physical, psychological, and social entirety, and not merely from the biological point of view.
Interpersonal Relations; Aged; Physician-Patient Relations