Patient Preferences

Patient preference refers to two different ideas within the realm of medical decision-making: the patient’s preferred choice of treatments and his or her preferred degree of involvement in the decision-making process.

A patient’s preferences about treatment options often change when faced with a particular decision, making it difficult to measure preference and to correlate preferences with decision quality. Researchers can query healthy volunteers on their preferences for treatment options for breast or prostate cancer, but until faced with the decision to lose a breast or prostate, how much will a person’s answer reflect their preferences if faced with the decision themselves? Patients’ preferences about involvement in medical decisions also may shift over time. For example, after using a decision aid—and understanding the critical contribution that patients play in decision-making—patients are more likely to report a desire for involvement in medical decision-making.

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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.