What is an Informed Medical Decision?

In the United States, we hold the right to determine the course of our lives to be fundamental. Decisions about medical treatments—whether or not to have surgery for a chronic back condition, for example—have a considerable impact on the course of our lives. But making choices about medical tests, procedures, and treatments can be overwhelming, in part because medical decisions are often complex.

Of course, some medical decisions are fairly clear—if you break a leg, the recommended treatment is a cast, elevation, and crutches. Other decisions—back surgery for example—are much less clear.

Decisions About Preference-Sensitive Conditions

For an optimal outcome, decisions that are less clear, sometimes referred to as “preference-sensitive conditions,” must take into account the needs, desires, and lifestyle of the individual patient. Unfortunately, patients often make decisions about medical treatments without complete understanding of their options. Instead, health care providers may encourage patients to make a particular choice or may not present complete and balanced information on all viable options. It’s important for patients to understand that options exist for almost every treatment decision—including the option to do nothing.

 

Shared Decision Making

Shared decision making is the process by which a health care provider communicates to the patient personalized information about the options, outcomes, probabilities, and scientific uncertainties of available treatment options and the patient communicates his or her values and the relative importance he or she places on benefits and harms. Shared decision making has been widely advocated as an effective means for reaching agreement on the best strategy for treatment.

 

Benefits to Patients and Providers

A growing body of research shows that both patients and providers benefit when patients are well informed and play a significant role in deciding how they are going to treat or manage their health conditions. Informed patients feel better about the decision process. Their decisions are more likely to match up with their preferences, values, and concerns. These patients are more likely to stick with the regimens the treatment requires, and they often end up rating their health after treatment as better.

 

What We Believe

At The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making, we believe that optimal medical decisions require fully informed patients who participate fully in a shared decision-making process, rather than delegating decisions to their doctors. We believe that one medical answer can never be right for all people. The decision that will best serve a particular patient often depends on the patient's own preferences and values. And the treatment that is best for one patient may not be best for another in exactly the same situation.

At the Foundation, we consider the opportunity to engage in the process of shared decision making to be a basic right of every patient. By funding research projects and demonstration sites, we foster greater understanding of the many benefits of shared-decision making and help providers learn how to best use shared decision making in their day-to-day practice.