Committing to patient-centred medical education

Background : Regular encounters of patients and medical students in a managed and structured consultation format, to focus on partnership in health care and chronic illness management, can address the student learning and professional development requirements facing contemporary medical education. Context : To engage and maintain such a strategy demands commitment and a belief in the importance of patient-centred medicine. The mechanism by which the Launceston Clinical School, University of Tasmania, has embraced this challenge over 8 years is the Patient Partner Program (P3). Innovation : Acknowledged as a program that enhances student learning, P3 features learning objectives that integrate the capabilities of managing the consultative craft and foster the growth of practitioners skilled in patient engagement.