Patient engagement: Changing pediatric practice to improve patient care

Twenty-first century health care has evolved into a patient-centred enterprise that has changed the relationship between doctors and patients. Society now sets a high expectation for clinicians not only to impart knowledge to people about their illnesses and prescribe treatments to improve their clinical conditions but also to work with patients to ensure that the treatments are acceptable to ensure the patients' adherence to the recommendations. Most physicians are not trained for this change, but the principles of patient engagement can help clinicians meet these new challenges and perform well on measures of patient satisfaction and compliance with care recommendations. This article presents the basics of patient engagement for clinical staff to aid the facilitation of new approaches to patient care.