An overview on the promotion on patient-centered care and shared decision-making in Mexico

Abstract

Mexico is a mid-income North American country. It strives to materialize the right to health in accordance with its laws. But the health system faces various problems: fragmentation, segmentation, limited funding, insufficient coverage, and low quality of health care. Mexico’s population is aging, which has led to an increasing prevalence of chronic conditions. To overcome this issue, the goals have shifted towards free universal health coverage under equality, effectivity, and quality criteria focused on primary health care. Consequently, the health system has moved towards Patient-Centered Care (PCC), and an opportunity to promote Shared Decision-Making (SDM) during the clinical encounter to enhance patient and family involvement in their own health care.PCC and SDM are relatively new ideas in Mexico. The research agenda has focused on initiatives attempting to bring these concepts to clinical practice. This paper seeks to describe the local headway and the state of the art of PCC- and SDM-related strategies in the Mexican health system.