Patient-Physician Relationship

The patient-physician relationship refers to the nature of the connection between a patient and his or her physician, or more broadly, his or her health care provider. The way providers relate to their patients significantly affects the decision-making process.

The patient-physician relationship exists along a continuum from authoritarian connection to cooperative partnership. In an authoritarian connection, the health care provider makes a recommendation, emphasizes the advantages of this choice, downplays the disadvantages of the option, and neglects to ask the patient about his or her preferences. In a cooperative partnership, the health care provider explains in balanced manner the advantages and disadvantages of all viable options and solicits the patient’s opinion.

		An interactive decision aid fosters improved treatment decision-making by patients with ischemic heart disease. Click here for Research Brief
		Decision aids improve patient knowledge and comfort with decisions. Click here for Research Brief
		Patient decision aids improve decision quality but widespread use is limited. Click here for Research Brief
		Doctors support greater sharing of decision-making with patients but experience practical barriers in implementation. Click here for Research Brief
		Policy experts suggest reduction of geographic variation as a means for dealing with Medicare funding gap. Click here for Research Brief
		Experts believe better measuring tools are needed to improve decision quality. Click here for Research Brief
		Location explains some—but not all—of the racial and ethnic barriers to knee replacement surgery. Click here for Research Brief

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The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision-making offers these definitions to provide context for the topic areas
and a deeper understanding of the referenced articles within each topic.