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Patient-centeredness is in demand as a core element of modern healthcare. Integrative medicine endorses this premise and considers it as part of the successful implementation of an approach in Integrative Medicine.

The term patient-centeredness describes an approach that puts the patient’s individual preferences, needs, and values first and lets this prioritization guide clinical decisions in all areas of healthcare delivery.

Today, patient-centeredness is seen as a countermodel to the traditional disease-centered approach. It is a key attribute and requirement of high-quality care. It is also described as a fundamental part of Integrative Medicine.

Study results indicate the association of patient-centeredness with health-related outcomes. However, since various definitions of patient-centeredness have been employed, the comparability of the studies is fairly limited. An integrative model of patient-centeredness comprises existing definitions and concepts and can, therefore, be used for guiding future research and implementation.

Patient-centeredness can be implemented at the level of individual health professionals and patients, at the level of individual healthcare institutions as well as at the level of the health care system.

Current barriers to its effective implementation are, in particular, the limited understanding of patient-centeredness of the individual health professionals, and the lack of leadership-level championing for the concept as well as within the organizational culture of healthcare institutions. Moreover, current payment models disincentivize the implementation of patient-centeredness.

Nevertheless, there is a visible change in healthcare delivery in Germany, mostly due to the consistent promotion of patient-centeredness, for example, from the Federal Ministry of Health (German: Bundesministerium für Gesundheit [BMG]).

This can be witnessed by the numerous funding priority-programs on patient-centeredness, the involvement of patient representatives at health policy levels, and the establishment of various alliances for the implementation of patient-centered activities.

Overall, the topic of patient-centeredness is undoubtedly very relevant, however, even though nationwide coordinated implementation is still lacking.

Research on the effectiveness of interventions to foster patient-centeredness need to go hand in hand with the willingness of healthcare institutions to establish new structures to make patient-centeredness perceptible within the organizational culture, and on an individual level. At the same time, we need the continual patient-reported quality measurement of experienced patient-centeredness. Last but not least, patient-centeredness needs stronger implementation at the health care system level, for example, within national clinical practice guidelines and payments models.