Responsible Patient-centered Care

Patient-centered care (PCC), an integral part of the diabetes care lexicon, is defined as providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions. RPCC is that in which the physician or health-care team take on the responsibility of ensuring that the person with diabetes is offered all relevant information, in an understandable manner, so that he or she can take part in a shared decision-making process, which offers the potential for achieving optimal therapeutic outcomes, without ignoring his or her biopsychosocial context. RPCC encourages shared responsibility between the members of diabetes care team, including medical and nursing personnel, and family members. RPCC extends to health policy makers, to provide diabetes-friendly health-care facilities, and to civil society, to create a healthy social environment. {Table 2} Respect: RPCC providers should be sensitive toward the psychosocial reality and personal or sociocultural beliefs of the person with diabetes and his or her family. In a life-threatening, organ-threatening or limb-threatening clinical situation, (irrational) beliefs may place the person with diabetes at the risk of harm. "Others" may include medical and health professionals of different specialties, lay educators, family member, community...