I vividly remember the first time I realized that my neurologist and I are in possession of vastly different although complementary types of knowledge. At the time, I had been a patient of his for a couple of years and in between appointments, I would write my questions about Parkinson’s disease (PD), my treatment, and other things that I thought were related to my condition on a list that I brought to my next visit. He would patiently answer my questions as best he could and on the subway going home from the clinic, I would start my next list.
(more…)Tag: shared decision-making
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“Do you want to drink cappuccinos or do you want to get well?”
Even though the notion of shared decision-making in healthcare was first mentioned in scientific literature already during the 1970s, the main development in the field has taken place since 1997, when the well-cited article “Shared decision-making in the medical encounter: What does it mean? (or it takes at least two to tango)” by Charles et al. was published. In it, the authors state that “To date, the concept has been rather poorly and loosely defined”. They go on to suggest the following four “key characteristics of shared decision-making (1) that at least two participants–physician and patient be involved; (2) that both parties share information; (3) that both parties take steps to build a consensus about the preferred treatment; and (4) that an agreement is reached on the treatment to implement.”
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