J Natl Med Assoc
-
Recent trends in healthcare policy from high-volume service models to "high-value" delivery systems have refocused the need for patient-centered approaches to quality care. However, benchmarks of how to define and evaluate successful patient-centeredness have not been sufficiently established. Such ill-defined evaluation criteria can further exacerbate systemic inequities in maximum quality health care delivery, especially based on the intersectional diversity of various patient populations. ⋯ Moreover, treating Black patients as "knowers" emphasizes the prioritization of patient values at the core of providing valuable healthcare. Such an academic, policy, and clinical approach to medicine agrees with well-established principles of medical ethics. In addition, the framework of a phenomenology of medicine can better facilitate physician-patient communication and interaction by delineating often muddled hermeneutics.