title: Improving patient-centred medicine: a preliminary experience for teaching communication skills to Italian general practitioners.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A key concept for general practice nowadays is that of patient-centred medicine. In this model the physician's aim is to integrate the patient's experience of illness with the conventional understanding of disease, trying to reconcile the patient's agenda with his/her own. This paper describes a preliminary experience of a CME course on patient-centred medicine in Italy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The article focuses on a 7 hour course for teaching patient-centred medicine to Italian general practitioners. Assessment of the course was done both in terms of learner satisfaction and efficacy. Learner satisfaction was evaluated by a questionnaire with a 6-point Likert scale and course efficacy by a pre/post-paper-and-pencil test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The pilot course on patient-centred medicine seems to obtain high satisfaction in participants. Furthermore, an increase in competence with regards to patient-centeredness resulted after the course. The pilot study represents the first Italian CME seminar on patient-centered medicine. Results obtained both in terms of satisfaction and efficacy suggest that the CME course is a valid educational tool. The opportunity to extend the experience to a higher number of participants is therefore recommended.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, University of Milan, Italy. trepmeno@mailserver.unimi.it
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vegni
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martinoli
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Moja