It has become one of the most oft-used and perhaps most hypocritical phrases in health care: patient-centered care. This usually goes hand-in-hand with the concept of patient autonomy. These are two buzz phrases that have lost much of their true meaning.

Clinicians like to believe that because the patient is the hub of the assessment and treatment paradigm, that this makes the care “patient-centered”. But when you look more closely, patient autonomy is stifled by some subtle (and not-so-subtle) issues. It could be the level of interaction with the patient, the attitudes of the clinician, and even the health care system itself. They all become significant limiters to patient autonomy.

Here are six ways to effectively stifle patient-centered care.

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Reality – what a concept. If you were around in 1979, it was the name of a Robin Williams album. Good laughs, indeed. If you were at the State Fair this past weekend, it was what you embraced following the Longhorns’ 55 – 17 loss to Boomer Sooner. No laughs there.

It was, without doubt, a reality check.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have made light of the Texas A&M Aggies for their recent inability to play for more than two quarters. I may have to apologize – at least they got 2 quarters in. The University of Texas Longhorns mustered a sum total of one quarter of good play against Oklahoma this past weekend.

For one quarter, they were in the game. The defense had managed to shut down the OU rushing attack, and they did a lot of bending and not much breaking in the red zone. The score was 6 – 3. But then reality set in.

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If you were to ask any 10 athletes, regardless of their sport, to tell you what the most important aspect of their training is, you will invariably be told “the training sessions”. Athletes are always concerned about doing the right workouts. They will search high and low for the workout that will take them to training and performance nirvana.

In the grand scheme of things, the training session serves as perhaps an hour or so of training stimulus. What about the 23 or more hours until the next training stimulus? That’s a lot of time for recovery and adaptation to occur. Recovery reigns supreme in training and injury – and here’s why.

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The words on the page were hard to comprehend. Steve Jobs – one of the great entrepreneurs and innovators of the modern era – died this week at the age of 56. Jobs had battled cancer for many years.

In a time when medical science has boosted the average life expectancy into the 70s, a death at age 56 just seems so incomprehensible. It is only harder to imagine when that person is an icon of your era, one of our inspirational leaders and cultural heroes. Aren’t those people supposed to live forever?

Many shared stories and musings about the man. Many common themes emerged. Although I have written many posts about life, love, and the pursuit of happiness over the years, the news served up a vivid reminder once again of how fragile our lives really are.

Fortunately, Jobs provided us not only with some great technical innovations, but some insightful thoughts of his life experiences as well.

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