The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines patient-centered care (PCC) as: “care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values” and that ensures “that patient values guide all clinical decisions.”  As the definition implies, an important attribute of PCC is the active engagement of patients when health care decisions must be made. We recognize that this focus is narrower than the broader concept of “person-centered.”  Our focus is on persons already involved in the health care system. That focus has its own characteristics and complexity.

Topics important to the implementation of PCC include effective and efficient communication, shared decision making, and support for patient needs. There is widespread consensus that the traditional methods used to pay health care providers tend to hinder their ability to deliver PCC by favoring volume over value.  New and evolving delivery and payment models are expected to stimulate and sustain innovative approaches to the delivery of PCC in the future.  Importantly, there is evidence that information technology can have multiple benefits for PCC by improving shared decision making, patient-clinician communication, patient engagement, and patient access to medical information.  Examples of IT solutions to implementing PCC are provided in this course.