Table 1.

Terminology related to person-centred care

Term	Definition	Comment
Person-centred care [13]	Person-centred care is a way of thinking and doing things that sees the people using health and social services as equal partners in planning, developing and monitoring care to make sure it meets their needs.	Least ambiguous term, unrelated to prognosis. Most important in chronic conditions where there is no disease-altering therapy and patient engagement in self-management is essential for best clinical outcomes.
Supportive care [14]	An approach “to prevent or treat as early as possible the symptoms of a disease, side-effects caused by treatment of a disease, and psychological, social and spiritual problems related to a disease or its treatment”.	Has become central to cancer medicine (and an expectation), where supportive services are advanced, although symptom burden in a number of cancers may be much less and disease may be completely curable. Accepted that “lifestyle” interventions will lead to greater long-term health. Many people with cancer live with “treatable but not curable” disease, like those with advanced respiratory disease, and the same problems are being recognised.
Palliative care [15]	Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. Will enhance quality of life and may also positively influence the course of illness.	Favoured by the European Respiratory Society for people with advanced disease and where death would not be unexpected. The World Health Organization also states: “Is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, […] and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications”.