The Patient-Centered Medicine as the Theoretical Framework for Patient Engagement

Abstract

The present contribution will describe the origin, development and main characteristics of the patient-centered medicine; the literature on patient-centeredness, in particular in the field of chronic disorders, will be discussed and the importance of this approach underlined; arguments about the importance of patient-centered medicine as theoretical frame founding and supporting the concept of patient engagement will be highlighted, considering that only within this medical epistemology the patient's engagement can find a full and complete expression.