Patients express more satisfaction with clinicians who rate themselves as more "mindful" and engage in more patient-centered communication, according to a new study published in the September/October issue of the Annals of Family Medicine. For the purposes of the study, mindfulness is defined as purposeful and nonjudgmental attentiveness to one's own experience, thoughts and feelings and is associated with physician well-being. The study assessed whether a correlation exists between clinician self-rated mindfulness and quality of patient care. The results indicate mindful clinicians are more likely to focus on patient-centered communications, are more positive in their emotional tone with patients and are more likely to receive high marks from patients for communication and overall satisfaction. Abstract