Patients have less than 20 seconds to first explain the reason for their visit before they are interrupted by their doctors. Moreover, medical jargon, and/or docsplaining conversational practices, are all indices that show the tendency of doctors to take control of the clinical dialogue prematurely. In the case of elderly patients, things are even more sensitive.The integration of Eco's theory of interpretation and Kristeva's model of patient interpretation is an opportunity for a better understanding of healthcare professionals (as patient interpreters) – patient (as active interpreter) relationship in palliative care in the elderly, in the interdisciplinary field of medical humanities. From this perspective, the idea of interpretative cooperation and the model of benevolent listening to vulnerability allows the doctor to engage in a process of negotiation of meaning based on freedom and fidelity, to enter into the subjective worlds of the elderly patients with both scientific curiosity and genuine kindness, and to find a reasonable agreement about the different interpretative habits that lead him to the best interpretative strategies of the nature of illness.The results obtained on the basis of a qualitative study incorporating semi-structured in-depth interviews and thematic analysis with healthcare professionals active in palliative care in the elderly, show that the understanding of medical practice from a semiotic viewpoint has positive effects in terms of medication adherence, in general on the quality of the doctor-patient relationship and to a better management of problems for clinical management.