Medical ethics response to chronic illness healthcare for aging people of Taiwan

Abstract

With advanced medical technology, the aging population has risen rapidly worldwide. Thus, aging chronic illness and long-term illness have become an unavoidable issue in medical care management. Conventional medical care management has neglected chronic medical care due to lacking the know-how for handling the needs of aging chronic clients. Aging patients cannot obtain a close relationship with medical professionals. A collaborative medical relationship includes establishing a patient-centred medical process which considers patients' voices and needs. However, in traditional Chinese Confucian society, the patient-centred medical process involves not only the patient, but also the patient's family, which makes the entire medical decision-making process more complicated. This study investigates Chinese medical ethics to understand the complicated doctor-patient relationship among healthcare professionals, patients and patients' family members.