 Like for the slow food movement, slow medicine is a call to balance over-emphasis on fast processes which reduce quality.The first mention of slow medicine in print took place in the first decade of the twenty-first century, about fifteen years after the start of the slow food movement in Italy.In the year 2002 an article was published in an Italian medical journal which used the words "slow medicine" 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.