We like to think of medicine as a vast sea of ​​knowledge, a science of certainty and applied research intended to heal and cure. Patients visit their doctors expecting to be diagnosed, prescribed and treated. For many patients this optimistic view is actually the order of things. But for many others, medicine is an experimental activity and very human in nature. Atul Gawande, in his collection of essays entitled Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, sheds light on this view of medicine as a field of possibilities and dead ends, improvements and failures. Despite the many changes introduced by medicine, the evolution of the patient-doctor relationship into one that redefines the patient's role in healthcare is probably the most significant. Medical progress has been embraced by a new generation of patients who are better educated, better informed about their health and playing an increasingly active role in decision-making regarding their care. We no longer think of medicine as a one-way street, where the doctor makes all decisions pertinent to the patient's health. The effectiveness of medical care depends as much on the doctor's ability to make reasonable and valid judgments as on the patient's illness and right to demand the best possible care. By humanizing the doctor and revealing his fallibilities, Gawande implicitly recognizes the need for patients to be more involved in matters relating to their medical care. It is ironic that the advancement of medical technology in the twenty-first century has coincided with an increased awareness for patient-centered care, a development that could be attributed to the destruction of the illusion of medicine as perfect and correct…… middle of paper…… y, doctors can never know with absolute certainty whether a treatment will be useful in the long term or whether the prescribed drug will produce the desired result. However, by erasing our misconceptions about medicine as a flawless science, Gawande humanizes healthcare and allows us to reevaluate our understanding of the roles of the patient and the doctor. Advances in medicine have influenced a type of patient-centered care that is complemented by greater patient responsibility and physician respect for medical autonomy. Works Cited Berger, J.T. “Redefining the Domains of Physician and Patient Decision Making.” International Journal of Clinical Practice. 65.8 (2011): 828-30. Press. www.medscape.com/viewarticle/746804>. Gawande, Atul. Complications: A surgeon's notes on an imperfect science. New York: Picador, 2002. Print.