August 28, 2025
The shift towards patient-centered care is transforming the face of healthcare, promising benefits not just for individuals but for overall health outcomes. This approach places patients at the heart of their healthcare experience and empowers them to actively participate in their treatment decisions to ensure their unique needs and preferences are respected.
The seeds of the modern patient-centered care movement were sown in the 1960s and 70s when the first “patient rights” movements in Britain and the USA started taking form, setting in motion a slow but powerful shift in patient expectations that continues to reshape the doctor-patient relationship today. These movements pushed health establishments to move away from paternalistic approaches, where patients had little say in their treatment options, towards more collaborative models. The advent of the AIDS epidemic sparked further advancements, including the 1997 Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, giving birth to what we now know as the “Health and Human Rights” movement.
<p “>Leading this movement is the Picker Institute, founded in 1986 by Harvey Picker and his wife Jean, who have made it their mission to promote patient-centered care. In 1987, the Institute partnered with researchers from Harvard Medical School in groundbreaking research that resulted in the creation of eight core concepts of patient-centered care. This research involved extensive focus groups with recently discharged patients, family members, physicians, and non-physician hospital staff, combined with a comprehensive literature review. The results of this study were published in the 1993 book “Through the Patient’s Eyes,” which laid the foundation for what would become known as the Picker Principles of Patient-Centered Care. These principles provide a comprehensive framework for delivering high-quality, personalized healthcare.
The principle of “involvement in decisions and respect for preferences” is the very cornerstone of patient autonomy in healthcare. 
At its heart, patient autonomy requires truly informed consent, but what does that mean, and how can we deliver on that requirement in our fast-paced healthcare environment? For patients, it means receiving all the necessary information they need to make decisions about their ongoing treatment, presented in a language and culturally sensitive context they can truly understand. Importantly, it encompasses creating a safe and supportive environment that encourages patients and caregivers to ask questions, express concerns, and participate in shared decision making even when time is short.
Healthcare providers are continually balancing limited time with the need to provide comprehensive care. Yet, it’s crucial that they find ways to give patients the attention they deserve. This means offering considered and meaningful answers that respect the patient’s values, even when feeling pressed for time.
To ensure that patients feel comfortable and confident participating in their healthcare decisions, medical teams need the right training and tools. This will enable them to create a safe and supportive environment that empowers patients to take part in their healthcare decision making in a way that doesn’t feel rushed and respects the physician’s schedule. This is where ongoing Continuing Medical Education (CME) plays a vital role.
Through CME focused on patient-centered care, healthcare providers can learn strategies to efficiently engage patients, communicate effectively in limited time frames, and still ensure that patients feel heard and involved. It’s about maximizing the quality of their interactions, without necessarily having to increase the quantity of time spent. By honing these skills, providers can deliver effective patient-centered care even when dealing with busy schedules and demanding workloads.
So how do we equip our physicians and providers with the skills to deliver on this principle? The answer lies not in learning more about patient-centered care but learning how to effectively deliver it. In our next article we will outline tangible strategies for a new approach to CME training that is interactive, technology-enabled and designed to create stronger patient-partner relationships.