The 21st is being recognized as the Century of the Person, particularly in Medicine and Health. Person Centered Medicine, as a concept and global programmatic movement developed in collaboration with the World Medical Association, World Health Organization, International Council of Nurses and 30 other institutions over a decade of annual Geneva Conferences, places the whole person as the center of health and as the goal and protagonist of health actions. Seeking the person at the center of medicine, has meant a medicine of the person, for the person, by the person and with the person. Articulating science and humanism, it strives for a medicine informed by evidence, experience and values and aimed at the restoration and promotion of health for all.
The textbook on Person Centered Medicine reviews this perspective as it has evolved to date and its resultingknowledge base. The book structure encompasses an Introduction to the field and four sections on Principles, Methods, Specific Health Fields, and Empowerment Perspectives. Its 42 chapters are authored by 105 clinician-scholars from 25 different countries across world regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania). Its vision and goals involve total health for a total person. Ongoing work and upcoming publications would focus on redesigning health systems fit to purpose, and integrating ancestral knowledge and wisdom, community members' self- and mutual-care, advances in medical science, and the contributions of health-relevant social sectors.
