We developed a required, longitudinal course for first-year medical students that addressed the patient-doctor relationship. Our course linked understanding patients' experiences and perspectives on illness with listening to, talking with, and establishing a rapport with patients while obtaining their medical histories. Learning was enhanced by use of an interdisciplinary faculty and by small-group continuity and faculty mentoring. Our curriculum adapted problem-based, self-directed educational methods to convey medical humanism. We focused on bedside interviewing as the means for exploring patients' social, emotional, and ethical concerns.