Updated 28/08/2026
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Plain-language summary of research published in the Georgian Medical Journal. Written for the general public by the GMJ News editorial team.
Patient-centred care is endorsed in nearly every international policy framework and accreditation standard — yet its consistent realisation in daily clinical practice remains incomplete almost everywhere. A commentary in the Georgian Medical Journal argues the real barrier isn’t clinical skill or technology, but deficiencies in professional culture, medical education, and organisational accountability.
A Gap Between Endorsement and Practice
The commentary frames professionalism as a collective, system-level function rather than solely an individual attribute — leadership behaviour, learning environments, workload design, and institutional incentives all directly shape whether clinicians can actually engage patients meaningfully, regardless of how committed any individual doctor is personally.
The “Hidden Curriculum” in Medical Education
A key argument concerns how doctors are actually trained: informal learning, role modelling, and observed behaviour in medical education — the so-called “hidden curriculum” — often shape attitudes toward empathy, communication, and shared decision-making far more powerfully than formal instruction does. What trainees watch senior clinicians actually do tends to outweigh what they’re formally taught to do.
At a glance — the headline figures.
The commentary treats communication and empathy as safety-critical competencies, not soft or ancillary skills — citing evidence linking deficiencies in these areas directly to adverse events, reduced patient trust, and compromised care quality. Structural constraints, including staffing pressure, inconsistent role modelling, and weak feedback mechanisms, are identified as the key barriers standing in the way.
The paper’s conclusion calls for closer alignment between medical education, clinical governance, and accreditation systems — arguing patient-centred care becomes consistently achievable only when professionalism is embedded as a shared organisational responsibility, backed by continuous faculty development, reflective practice, and measurable accountability, rather than left to individual goodwill.
Read the Original Research
Original article: Why Patient-Centred Care Fails in Practice: Georgian Study Reveals the Hidden Barriers
Published in: Georgian Medical Journal, Pre-launch issue (2025)
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18109374
📄 Read the full article at gmj.ge →
Georgian Medical Journal (GMJ) · ISSN 3088-4322 · gmj.ge · Open Access CC BY 4.0 · Published by the Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG). This summary is an independent editorial product of GMJ News; for clinical decisions, consult the original peer-reviewed article and a qualified professional.
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