Person-Centeredness
The historical roots of the term patient-centeredness are presented. The point is made that, although the term possesses considerable rhetorical power, in reality many institutions that wave the banner of patient-centeredness remain resolutely disease focused. This has been the case since the early nineteenth century, when clinicopathologic correlation became an imperative of medical practice. That the doctor’s primary mandate is to ferret out disease remains a tenacious precept in contemporary medical practice as well as in medical education. This chapter argues that a medicine anchored in a new and bold definition of sickness, one with a laser-sharp focus on a person’s functioning, necessarily opens many avenues for a practice centered on the person.