International Research Community on Multimorbidity

By Catherine Hudon

As many people affected by multimorbidity frequently interact with a family physician, [1-2] this professional is in a privileged position to play a significant role in their health. In patient-physician interactions, patient-centered care is widely acknowledged as a core value in family medicine [3-5] and has been associated with short term positive outcomes. [6-8] We decided to conduct a systematic review to identify and compare instruments, subscales or items assessing patient perception of patient-centered care in family medicine. We identified two instruments dedicated to measuring patient-centered care and eleven instruments that address some dimensions of this concept. The two instruments dedicated to patient-centered care measure key dimensions of this concept but are visit-based, limiting their applicability for long-term care processes such as chronic illness management. Relevant items from the eleven other instruments provide partial coverage of the concept but these instruments were not designed to provide a specific assessment of patient-centered care.
This article is published in the Mar/Apr 2011 issue of Annals of Family Medicine. To have free access to this article, click on this link:
http://www.annfammed.org/cgi/content/full/9/2/155

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