Health care decisions are never easy to make, especially when the decisions are complex such as considering a new therapy or participating in a clinical trial. Many health care professionals recognize this and are encouraging patients to play a more active role in making treatment decisions based on balancing evidence based options with a patient’s personal health outcome goals, preferences and values.
Shared decision-making is when patients, caregivers and health care professionals work together to make the health-related decisions that are best for the individual patient. This is an approach to decision making that considers input from patients as part of the planning process and works best when a patient wants to be part of their own treatment team.
Learn more and find out what the key steps to participating in shared decision making are