The International Charter invites

organizations, groups, and individuals to reflect on the listed values, to bring them into every healthcare interaction, and to offer additional values that are essential to their care systems and patient populations. The International Charter was designed to be dynamic and inclusive. Indeed, the International Charter articulates the essential nature of core human values that underpin all human relationships. In this way, the International Charter can be used to discuss and teach values and embraced across cultures, languages, professions, and systems globally. Work remains to be done for the International Charter values to become standard across healthcare systems at all levels. We recognize that values espoused by the International Charter may be challenged in healthcare environments that have other incentives check details for alignment. The International Charter explicitly honors the relationship-centered [9], [23] and [24] nature of healthcare and the role skilled communication plays in enabling relationships.

In so doing the International Charter addresses the fundamental role of partnership and two-way relationships between patients and physicians/clinicians, and between interprofessional healthcare team members. Honoring these partnerships reflects the respect that grounds Metformin all other interactions. Other notable charters or agreements relevant to values, rights, and responsibilities in healthcare exist, including the Charter on Medical Professionalism [25], Charter for Compassion

(endorsed by countries, cities, partners in various sectors Gefitinib manufacturer including healthcare and others, and over 108,000 individuals worldwide) [22], Charter of Compassion for Care in The Netherlands [26], and the Salzburg Statement on Shared Decision Making [27]. These important initiatives have inspired numerous efforts to improve healthcare. Groups such as the Human Values in Healthcare Forum [28] in the UK, the recently created Global Network in Spirituality and Health [29] which partially grew out of the US National Consensus Conference on Creating More Compassionate Systems of Care convened in 2012 by the George Washington University Institute for Spirituality and Health [29] and [30], and many others are working to promote ethical and humane healthcare. The International Charter for Human Values in Healthcare joins other charters articulating the importance of professionalism and values to guide healthcare professionals. Among the best known is the Charter on Professionalism written by members of the Medical Professionalism Project group that was comprised of leaders of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, the American College of Physicians–American Society of Internal Medicine, and the European Federation of Internal Medicine [25].