[Complex care: what works in practice? Person-centred care and multidisciplinary cooperation]. / Complexe zorg: wat werkt in de praktijk? Persoonsgerichte zorg en multidisciplinaire samenwerking.

Care complexity is determined by patient-related factors and factors related to the care process, such as the number of caregivers involved with the patient. To be effective, care should be tailored to the context of the patient, and her or his possibilities and situation. Person-centred care focuses explicitly on this context and leads to better health, cheaper healthcare and more job satisfaction for the physician. This article provides tips for putting person-centred care and multidisciplinary cooperation into practice: for talking about the context, understandable communication, picking up contextual cues, creating an individual care plan and organising multidisciplinary consultation. When physicians listen even more closely to the patient's story, discuss treatment options in an understandable way and coordinate care with other health care providers, complex care becomes less complicated.

[Patient-centred and culturally competent: good health care for immigrant patients requires specific competencies]. / Patiëntgericht én cultureel competent: goede zorg voor allochtone patiënten vereist specifieke competenties.

Good care for all patients, including immigrants, means patient-centred personal care by a physician with the specific knowledge and skills necessary for this individual patient and his specific context. This requires cultural competences, i.e. the knowledge and skills to handle ethnic, social and cultural health differences. These competences should be addressed more in medical education and postgraduate training and in policies regarding quality of care.

[Chronic disease in ethnic minorities: tools for patient-centred care in diabetes, hypertension and COPD]. / Chronische ziekten bij allochtonen: handvatten voor patiëntgerichte zorg bij diabetes, hypertensie en COPD.

In the Netherlands, chronic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, are more common and have a poorer prognosis in patients of Surinamese, Turkish and Moroccan origin. Surinamese develop cardiovascular diseases more often and at an earlier age; it is recommended that their cardiovascular risk profile be checked at an earlier stage. Standard treatment of diabetes mellitus is less effective among ethnic minorities. Patient information that is in line with the educational level and cultural values of the patient leads to better glucose levels. Focus group research among ethnic minorities shows that lifestyle changes which conflict with their own cultural beliefs or lack support in their social environment are often not adopted. Ethnic differences in the efficacy and toxicity of drugs are mainly caused by genetically determined variations in the activity of drug metabolizing enzymes.