Medical humanities as tools for the teaching of patient-centered care.

The Institute of Medicine, in its 2001 report Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, highlighted patient-centered care as an area for the development of quality measures. Since then, medical centers across the country have incorporated patient-centered modalities in their healthcare delivery systems. In academic medical centers, interest in patient-centered care has raised the awareness of the interactions between the humanities and medicine. This work aims to define the roles of patient-centered medicine and the medical humanities in the academic medical environment, to establish the shared values between the medical humanities and patient-centered care, and to demonstrate how the medical humanities can be a tool for the teaching of patient-centered care. Copyright 2009 Society of Hospital Medicine