| Sumario: | The purpose of this study was to describe the frequency of patient-centered communication (PCC)-related terminology in US doctor of chiropractic degree program (DCP) curricula, chiropractic accreditation standards, and chiropractic national boards testing content. Sixteen academic course catalogs, Council on Chiropractic Education accreditation standards, and National Board of Chiropractic Examiners test plans for parts I-IV were collected from November 2024 through December 2024. The documents were searched using terminology related to patient-centered communication. Context of each term, frequency of use, and percentage of related terminology relative to the overall curriculum at each respective DCP are described. The frequency of PCC-related terminology ranged from 2% to 17% in DCP required coursework. A total of 47% of DCP's in this study had a frequency of 5% or less of PCC-related terminology included in their curriculum. The most recent DCP accreditation standards outline a total of 8 Council on Chiropractic Education meta-competencies, 4 of which included terminology related to PCC. PCC-related terminology was absent from the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners primary test categories, with 2 instances found in the secondary test categories. There is large variability in frequency of PCC-related terminology used in US DCP curricula. Council on Chiropractic Education accreditation standards include PCC-related terminology in half of their stated meta-competencies. PCC-related terminology has limited representation in the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners test plans. Further study is needed to understand the real-time PCC-related content exposure that occurs within chiropractic education.
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