Doctor-patient interaction has long been considered an essential component in health care practices. Although it has been a popular topic receiving cross-disciplinary attention in the past few decades, scientific investigation and scholastic accounts on it are still far from enough. This article reviews published studies on doctor-patient interaction both in China and overseas. Synchronic and diachronic angles are incorporated in analyzing the reviewed papers. The overseas and Chinese studies are presented in separate sections. In each section, studies are re-grouped based on their disciplinary and methodological orientations. It is found that overseas studies on doctor-patient interaction started to appear in the 1960s and are characterized by its diversity in both theoretical and methodological approaches. Three major approaches emerged from the literature are macro “action” research, micro “discourse” studies and (micro) conversation analysis. Chinese research in this field appeared in the late 1980s. Three developmental stages have been outlined and an in-depth review on researching doctor-patient conversations from the linguistic perspective has been conducted. Studies at home and overseas are then compared, based on which suggestions on improving research in doctor-patient interaction in China are generated.