Slow medicine

In the year 2002 an article was published in an Italian medical journal which used the words "slow medicine"[2] to mean an approach to medicine which would allow practitioners sufficient time to evaluate the patient and his or her wider social context, to reduce anxiety, to evaluate new methods and technologies, to prevent premature release from the hospital and also to provide adequate emotional support.

[3] Later, in English-language publications, several physicians independently started using the term slow medicine.

For some, slow medicine means taking time and not rushing when evaluating a patient.

[6] For others, slow medicine is a careful evaluation of medical evidence and a desire not to "overdiagnose" or "overtreat.

[8] One early practitioner of slow medicine sees the patient in the metaphor of a plant which needs to be nourished and for impediments to be removed in order to allow healing to occur.