In recent years, there has been a shift in orientation towards person-centredness as part of a global move towards humanising and centralising the person within healthcare. Person-centredness, underpinned by robust philosophical and theoretical concepts, has an increasingly solid footprint in policy and practice, but research and education lag behind. This article considers the emergence of person-centredness, including person-centred care, and how it is positioned in healthcare policy around the world, while recognising a dominant philosophical positioning in Western philosophy, concepts and theories. Second, the evolution of person-centred healthcare over the past five years is reviewed. Published evidence of person-centred healthcare developments is drawn on, as well as information gathered from key stakeholders who engaged with the partner organisations in an Erasmus+ project to develop a European person-centred healthcare curriculum framework.

Five themes are identified, which underpin the literature and stakeholder perspectives:

• Policy development for transformation
• Participatory strategies for public engagement
• Healthcare integration and coordination strategies
• Frameworks for practice
• Process and outcome measurement

These themes reflect the World Health Organization’s global perspective on people-centred and integrated healthcare, and give some indication of development priorities as person-centred healthcare systems continue to be developed.

This article by Amanda Phelan, Brendan McCormack, Jan Dewing, Donna Brown, Shaun Cardiff, Neal F. Cook, Caroline A.W. Dickson, Sergej Kmetec, Mateja Lorber, Ruth Magowan, Tanya McCance, Kirsti Skovdahl, Gregor Štiglic and Famke van Lieshout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.