Keeping the patient in the center: common challenges in the practice of shared decision making

Shared decision making (SDM) is a collaborative process in which patients and providers make decisions together, integrating patient values and preferences with clinical evidence to arrive at a patient-centered decision. Respect for patients ’ values and preferences and their incorporation into clinical decisions is a core feature of both SDM and patient-centered care. As such, SDM has been hailed as the pinnacle of patient-centered care [1]. Consistent with this, we consider the outcome of the SDM process to be a patient-centered dec ision, one that respects a patient’s preferences, the degree to which a patient wants to be involved in the decision making process, and integrates current understanding of the benefits and harms inherent in different choices.

Source: Patient Education and Counseling - August 6, 2018 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Kimberly A. Fisher, Andy S.L. Tan, Daniel D. Matlock, Barry Saver, Kathleen M. Mazor, Arwen H. Pieterse Source Type: research