Educate. Empower. Support.

Proven Success
Hands holding and iPhone with the Breast Advocate App open

Community

Community

Knowledge Center

Knowledge Center

Decision Wizard

Community

Shared Decision Making: Putting The Patient at the Center of Healthcare

By explicitly recognizing a patient’s right to make decisions about their care, shared decision making can help ensure that care is truly patient-centered.

As gravity shifts away from health care providers as the sole keeper of medical information, the importance of sharing decisions, as opposed to clinicians making decisions on behalf of patients, has been increasingly recognized.

Shared decision-making (SDM) is the conversation that happens between a patient and clinician to reach a healthcare choice together.

Shared Decision Making: Putting The Patient at the Center of Healthcare

The Importance of Shared Decision-Making

When planning any type of medical treatment, interactions between the patient and their clinical care team tend to fall into one of the following types: paternalistic, informative, or shared decision-making.

Paternalistic decision-making occurs when the physician decides which course of action or treatment is in the patient’s best interest, without involving the patient in the decision-making process, i.e., “Here’s what we’re going to do for you Mrs. Smith.”

The “Informative” approach to decision-making provides the patient more comprehensive information including pros and cons, and the risk of complications, but still does not consider the patient’s values or preferences. 

Shared decision-making occurs when the health care provider and patient work together to make a health care decision that is best for the patient. The optimal decision takes into account…

Importance of shared decision-making | GRYT Health

Shared Decision-Making: Improves care while lowering costs

A report published in the New England Journal of Medicine touts that shared decision-making provides many benefits for patients, clinicians, and the healthcare system as a whole. These benefits include improved patient knowledge, less anxiety over the care process, improved health outcomes, reductions in unwarranted variation in care and costs, and better alignment of care with patients’ values. 

Even the Affordable Care Act (ACA) thinks so. It has a provision in it that encourages greater use of shared decision-making in health care.

Patients and their families often get confused and overwhelmed when making complex medical decisions where there is more than one treatment option. Shared decision-making, a collaborative process between patients and their physicians, can help clear up questions efficiently and better aligns patients’ preferences and values with treatment plans.

Decision aids

One key to shared decision making is using patient decision aids…

Shared Decision-Making New England Journal of Medicine | Decision Aids

Why Value-Based Care Must Include Shared Decision-Making

Shared decision-making is a key patient engagement strategy, but not yet widespread. Healthcare professionals say integrating the practice into value-based care could spark adoption.

Shared decision-making, or the practice of an informed patient participating in treatment decisions alongside her clinicians, may seem like a natural patient engagement strategy. After all, shared decision-making integrates the patient into the healthcare process and gives the patient more claim in her wellness journey.

Shared decision-making has shown to reduce preventable hospital readmissions among cardiac patients by at least 19 percent, and can also decrease patient anxiety and healthcare costs.

But despite proven clinical efficacy, shared decision-making isn’t entirely widespread across the healthcare industry, says Peter Goldbach, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Rite Aid’s RediClinic and Health Dialog…

Why Value-Based Care Must Include Shared Decision-Making

3 REASONS WHY SHARED DECISION-MAKING MATTERS

Access to health information on the internet and social media is transforming the patient’s role in healthcare. Patients are more involved in making healthcare decisions than ever before.

When physicians and patients work together to make treatment decisions, patients are more likely to be satisfied with their care. This exchange is referred to as shared decision-making. The approach aligns evidence-based information and the physician’s knowledge and experience with the patient’s values and personal preferences.

Clinicians can benefit from adopting shared decision-making in their practice for several reasons…

The Consumer Benefits of Patient Shared Decision Making

From patient-centered medical homes to consumer-directed health plans, changes in the delivery, financing and organization of healthcare are increasingly touted as consumer- or patient-centered. Still, today’s health system is far from reflecting consumers’ true needs and preferences.1

Patient shared decision making (PSDM) is a technique to incorporate patients’ needs and preferences into their individual treatment plans. PSDM goes beyond traditional informed consent in healthcare—it is an interpersonal, interdependent process in which healthcare providers and patients collaborate to make decisions about the care that patients receive. Shared decision making not only reflects medical evidence and providers’ clinical expertise, but also the unique preferences and values of patients and their families…

The Consumer Benefits of Patient Shared Decision Making