This study addresses patient-centered care and the importance of teaching and learning it in medical schools. Changes in disease prevalence and available information about diseases and their treatments require shared patient and physician decision-making. The use of different scales for measuring patient-centeredness was reviewed, particularly the "Patient-practitioner orientation scale" (PPOS). Higher PPOS scores are associated with more patient-centered attitudes. The study presents data on the attitude with respect to patient-centered care collected from 738 students in six different years of the medical course of the Federal University of Minas Gerais using the patient-practitioner orientation scale (PPOS) and compares these data with scores obtained from American medical students. The PPOS scores of the Brazilian students were higher than those of the American students. However, although the caring scores were higher among Brazilian students, their sharing scores tended to be lower.
Medical Education; Attitude of Health Personnel; Behavioral Medicine; Physician Patiente Relations; Patiente-Centered Care; Delivery of Health Care
