Connecting patient-centered care and a graphic representation of six core competencies for family physicians: definition and evaluation

The National College of Teachers in Family Medicine developed a competence-based teaching model for family physicians' early curriculum, the "competence daisy" (CD), a graphic representation of six core competencies. These competencies are implemented in primary care situations described in 11 categories of prototypic and exemplary situations. Patient-centered care (PCC) is an internationally validated systemic care model based on the work of Balint and Rogers. This pragmatic and eclectic model encompass both physician's and patient's perspectives. It is applicable by every physician but seems especially relevant to primary care. These two models, CD and PCC, are applicable in primary care by family physicians. They have similarities and differences but are in fact complementary. The CD model is of pedagogical interest: it gives meaning and coherence to competence acquisition for the health care role of future family physicians. The purpose of the PCC model is to give meaning to what is therapeutic in this health care role by putting the patient and his or her life plan (or personal health plan) at the center of the patient-doctor relationship. We propose a reconfiguration of the systemic architecture of the PCC model to integrate the two models. Creating connexions between CD and PCC would link the CD model to the internationally validated PCC model, thus opening a field for research in academic family medicine, both in quantitative and qualitative research.