Choosing treatment

Choosing treatment

At the core of patient-centred healthcare is the engagement of the patient in decisions about their own care and treatment.

Very often, choosing appropriate treatment is not just a question of clinical effectiveness, but of balancing the potential benefits and harms of different available options.

In these situations the views, values and preferences of the patient, and their life circumstances, have a strong bearing on what is most 'appropriate'.

And in any situation where informed consent is required, doctors are now required by their professional regulator to secure consent in the context of a shared decision with the patient about which treatment to select.

Best Buys

Best Buys include:

• enabling patients to have access to their medical records
• patient decision aids
• coaching, training and prompts to help patients make the best use of healthcare consultations.

Download Best Buys choosing treatment 

References

References to the original research studies are given throughout the text in this section.

Roll your cursor over the reference to see a pop-up of the study title and authors. Click the pop-up to go to the full reference on the References page.