Porter SC, Forbes P, Feldman HA, Goldmann DA. Impact of patient-centered decision support on quality of asthma care in the emergency department. Pediatrics. 2006 Jan;117(1):e33-42.

This article studies communication barriers between parents of children with asthma and clinical emergency department (ED) providers and the related underrecognition of chronicity and severity impede improvements in disease management. The asthma kiosk, a novel patient-driven decision support tool, provides ED clinicians with tailored recommendations for guideline-based treatment.

Epstein RM. Mindful practice. Journal of the American Medical Association. Sep 1999;282(9):833-839.

Mindful practitioners attend in a nonjudgmental way to their own physical and mental processes during ordinary, everyday tasks. This critical self-reflection enables physicians to listen attentively to patients' distress, recognize their own errors, refine their technical skills, make evidence-based decisions, and clarify their values so that they can act with compassion, technical competence, presence, and insight. Mindfulness informs all types of professionally relevant knowledge, including propositional facts, personal experiences, processes, and know-how, each of which may be tacit or explicit.

Gerteis M, Edgman-Levitan S, Daley J, Delbanco TL (eds.)
San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass; 1993

An in-depth look at how health care systems can improve the quality and delivery of care by including the patient, while at the same time make the patient's hospitalization more humane.

Ponte PR, Conlin G, Conway JB, et al. Making patient-centered care come alive: Achieving full integration of the patient's perspective. Journal of Nursing Administration. Feb 2003;33(2):82-90.

In this article, the authors describe how patients and families have been integrated into the care delivery model by involving them in planning, decision-making, and improvement processes at all levels of the organization.

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Winkelman WJ, Leonard KJ, Rossos PG. Patient-perceived usefulness of on-line electronic medical records: Employing grounded theory in the development of information and communication technologies for use by patients living with chronic illness. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2005 Jan 31; [Epub ahead of print].

The authors conclude that patient access to on-line medical records is not, in itself, useful to IBD patients but must be integrated into an existing health and psycho-social support system.

O'connor AM, Llewellyn-Thomas HA, Flood AB. Modifying Modifying unwarranted variations in health care: Shared decision making using patient decision aids. Health Affairs. 2004 Oct 7; [Epub ahead of print].

Patient decision aids have been shown to reduce patient passivity, help patients feel more informed, and can increase knowledge of relative benefits/harm of treatment. Decision aids are also shown to reduce the rate of invasive surgery in favor of more conservative treatment options.

Von Korff M, Moore JE, et al. A randomized trial of a lay person-led self-management group intervention for back pain patients in primary care. Spine. 1998;23(23):2608-2615.

In this randomized controlled trial, lay persons with back pain were trained to lead a self-management support group. Those in the intervention group were significantly less worried about back pain, expressed more confidence in self-care, and reduced their activity limitations compared with the control group.  Self-management groups led by trained patients may be an effective way to improve the health and well-being of patients with back pain.

Ferguson T, Frydman G. The first generation of e-patients. British Medical Journal. 2004;328:1148-1149.

The authors “offer five tentative conclusions regarding the emerging world of the e-patient,” those who use the Internet to research, manage and cope with illness. This article lays out a framework that is useful for anyone seeking to understand the online health revolution and how to leverage the power of the online patient.

Henneman EA, Cardin S. Family-centered critical care: Aa practical approach to making it happen. Critical Care Nurse. Dec 2002;22(6):12-19.

This article describes some techniques and tips on getting support and buy-in for open visiting hours based on a family-centered care model. 

Frampton S
San Francisco, California, USA: Jossey-Bass; 2003

This book provides a guide to the Planetree Institute's model of patient-centered care.  The beginnings of the model and various approaches towards implementation are highlighted.