On Shared Decision-making and Informed Consent

In the idealized concept of shared decision-making, the physician and patient comprise a collaborative clinical decision-making dyad.(1) The physician contributes medical knowledge, training, experience, and judgment, whereas the patient contributes personal values and health care goals through which to evaluate how each treatment option could fulfill those goals. As partners, the patient and physician collaboratively achieve a mutually agreeable medical decision through an ongoing communication process that creates informed consent.(2)