Patient-centredness in the consultation. 1: A method for measurement

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Communication in Healthcare
• Psychology

Background:

• Assessing doctor-patient interaction quality is crucial for effective healthcare.
• Patient-centeredness is a key indicator of high-quality medical communication.
• Existing methods for evaluating patient-centeredness may lack practicality or validity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present and validate a new method for assessing patient-centeredness in doctor-patient interactions.
• To establish the reliability, validity, and practicality of the developed assessment tool.
• To explore the time-effectiveness and large-scale applicability of the method.

Main Methods:

• Developed a method defining patient-centeredness by doctor responses facilitating patient expression of symptoms, thoughts, feelings, and expectations.
• Tested the method's validity using criterion correlations (rs = 0.51, 0.89).
• Assessed reliability through inter-rater (rs = 0.91) and intra-rater (rs = 0.88) correlations, and sensitivity (P < 0.001).

Main Results:

• The method demonstrated strong criterion validity and high reliability.
• It proved sensitive in detecting differences among doctors and their responses to patient cues (P < 0.001).
• A high correlation (rs = 0.806) was found between the first two minutes and the entire consultation score, enhancing time-effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• The developed method is a valid, reliable, sensitive, and practical tool for assessing patient-centered communication.
• Its efficiency, particularly using initial consultation minutes, supports large-scale application in medical education and research.
• The method can be utilized for feedback, assessment, and self-evaluation by students and clinicians.