Development of the concept of patient-centredness - A systematic review

Patient-centredness is often linked to high-quality patient care, but the concept is not well-defined. This study aims to provide an overview of how patient-centredness has been defined in the literature since Mead and Bower's review in 2000, and to provide an updated definition of the concept.

We performed a systematic literature search in PubMed to identify original articles with a sufficient definition of patient-centredness. We analysed extracted data defining patient-centredness.

Eighty articles were included. The dimensions "biopsychosocial", "patient-as-person", "sharing power and responsibility" and "therapeutic alliance" corresponded to four of five dimensions described by Mead and Bower. "Coordinated care" was a new dimension.

The identified dimensions are encompassed by three elements: the patient, the doctor-patient relationship and the framework of care i.e. the health care system. The additional focus on coordinated care could reflect increasing complexity of the health care system.

Narrowing down the understanding of patient-centredness to these three focus areas, viz. 1) understanding of the patients' experience of the illness in their life situation, 2) the professional's relationship with the patient, and 3) coordination of care in the system, could make the operationalisation and implementation of a patient-centred approach more manageable.