Introduction: There is a growing consensus that patient-centered care is more effective in treating patients than a strictly biomedical model, where there are known challenges to involving the patient in assessments, treatment goals, and determining preferred outcomes.
Objectives: The current study seeks to integrate patient values and perspectives by exploring how people diagnosed with a life-limiting disease define healing in their own words.
Methods: As a part of a larger study that included cognitive interviewing, we asked the question "what does the word healing mean to you?" Data were collected during face-to-face interviews with patients from three metropolitan healthcare facilities.