World Federation for Medical Education perspectives on person-centered medicine

Since 1984 the WFME has conducted an “International Programme for the Reorientation of Medical Education”. An important cornerstone in this process was the Edinburgh declaration of 1988 [1], adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1989 [2]. In order to promote the programme and in keeping with its constitutional mandate, the WFME Executive Council in 1998 in a position paper launched its Programme on Global Standards [3]. The purpose was to provide a tool for quality improvement in medical education, which could be of direct assistance to institutions, organisations and national authorities responsible for education and training of medical doctors at all levels throughout the continuum of medical education.