This post is part of a series where I elaborate on questions I was asked after my keynote in the 13th International Shared Decision Making (ISDM) Conference, hosted at Dartmouth College, USA, July 7, 2026 to July 10, 2026. From the conference website: “With the 2026 theme, ‘A Wider Lens,’ this year’s conference will bring together clinicians, researchers, patients, and policy leaders to expand our understanding of shared decision-making across specialties, care settings, and systems.” You can find links to my recorded keynote and to the other posts in the series at the end of this post.

The question I was asked (paraphrased by me):

“What’s your opinion on healthcare delivered patient education?”

Patient education is important and valuable, and for people just diagnosed with a chronic or long-term condition it is often a great start. What is taught is however largely techne and episteme (I explain these concepts in my presentation) flowing one way, from system to patient. It answers “how do I do X,” not “what have I learned about my own case that the system doesn’t know yet.” I want all patients to have access to high quality conventional patient education, complemented by, not mistaken for, mechanisms that let knowledge flow the other direction too.

Here are links to the other posts in this series:

• My recorded keynote for ISDM2026
• “How can we trust patients’ knowledge when there are anti-vaxxers and science deniers?”
• “What’s your opinion on healthcare delivered patient education?”
• “Who takes responsibility if the new way of taking pills harms other patients?”
• “Is epistemic injustice equally distributed, or stratified?”
• “How could we elicit Chronic Knowledge during a consultation? What question would you want to be asked?”
• “Is shared decision making ready to see the blue dots?”