Have patients become impatient to act in our healthcare system?

For some 40 years now, in France, the progressive recognition of the knowledge and experience of patients has been accompanied by an institutionalization of their participation and a diversification of the spaces in which they act. In this contribution, we offer an analytic look at the different forms of patient participation in the health world, in France and abroad. This non exhaustive overview underlines the need to pay particular attention to the conditions required if the shared experiences of care providers and patients are to serve as an occasion to optimize and revitalize the approach to medical care.