Watch this video, and you might think that helping patients better understand if a coronary stent is going to benefit them might be best accomplished by mandating a better informed consent process.
The use of patient specific, tailored informed consent forms might indeed improve the process of helping patients making treatment decisions that are better aligned with their preferences.
But before you write your congressman requesting that the informed consent process be improved, you might want to consider this interesting paper from University of Chicago that explains what the informed consent process shares with the Truth in Lending act (hint--mandated disclosures frequently fail miserably to achieve their intended purpose, and have many unintended adverse consequences).
How to address this problem today, if you are having to make a treatment decision? The DSP blog still thinks this approach is not a bad place to start.
Thanks for these resources. Patient advocacy is a responsibility of every medical practitioners for helping patients on making treatment decisions that are better aligned with their preferences.:)
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Peny@cherokee workwear