[Rethinking patient-centered care through an intersectional lens: pathways to health equity]

Patient-centered care takes into account the individual needs of patients and promotes participatory decision-making. In order for this concept to be implemented, it must recognize the diversity of social realities. This is countered by discrimination based on assumptions and exclusion, which affects the healthcare system at the personal, structural, and institutional levels. Discrimination impedes equitable care, for example with regard to gender, sexual orientation, language barriers, legal access, or social status. An individually oriented patient-centered approach must have an intersectional understanding of experiences of discrimination in order to recognize barriers and address them in care. Discrimination is not only an ethical problem, but also generates avoidable costs.

International and national approaches are increasingly calling for marginalized groups to be placed at the center of patient-centered care and for inequities in care to be taken into account. There are already numerous initiatives that incorporate the knowledge and experiences of marginalized groups into the design, methodology, and implementation of health-related interventions. It is also important to professionalize the healthcare staff and, thus, also the structural competence in the institutions. The routine collection of data on health inequities and experiences of discrimination supports the development and implementation of concrete strategies.

Research, healthcare, and health policy are three central fields of action to which concrete changes must be linked in order to enable equal patient-centered care.