Message to junior and less junior clinicians: let the core values of care guide your leadership!

Recently, I experienced what care is all about. I became a patient and noticed that my field of expertise, quality of care and patient safety, is not that easy in daily practice. In this Leadership in the Mirror, I reflect on my own experience and describe how four core values of care can hopefully guide the leadership of junior and less junior clinicians. The essay is adapted from the commencement speech I gave in June 2022 at the Faculty of Medicine at KU Leuven University and introduces a new quality framework that highlights the progressions of healthcare towards personalisation of care, with a focus on the whole person as an individual, rather than a restricted view on the patient's disease.