The nature and function of medicine has gradually changed over the past century. (1)What was once a largely communicative activity aimed at looking after the sick has become a technical enterprise able to treat them with increasing success. While few would want to give up these technical advances and go back to the past, medicine's traditional caring functions have been left behind as the practices of curing have become more established, and (2)it is criticized now for losing the human touch that made it so helpful to patients even before it knew how to cure them. The issue looks simple: human communication versus technique. However, we all know that in medicine it is never easy to separate the two. Research on medical practice shows that a patient's physical condition is often affected by the quality of communication between the doctor and the patient. (3)Even such an elementary form of consideration for the patient as explaining the likely effects of a treatment can have an impact on the outcome. We are also aware that in the cases where medicine still does not offer effective cures the need for old-style care is particularly strong. Hence it is important to remember the communicative dimension of modern medicine.