BE AN INFORMED PATIENT PRE-TREATMENT

As a patient it is your responsibility and right to know your diagnosis, treatment options/alternatives, risks and that you get to make the decisions.

There are seven basic elements of informed consent.

·         The patient knows that they have a role in the decision.

·         Discussion of the issue and decision at hand.

·         Discussion of the alternatives.

·         Discussion of the pros and cons of the alternatives.

·         Discussion of the uncertainties.

·         An assessment of the patient's understanding.

·         Exploration of patient preference.

Elements of the discussion affected patient choice. If patients knew they had a role in the decision, they were fivefold more likely to avoid intervention. Simply exploring alternatives led to a 10-fold greater chance patients would choose no intervention. And if uncertainty was mentioned, patients were 20 times more likely to choose medical therapy without diagnostics. The presence or absence of symptoms did not affect the decision. Overall, better-informed patients were less likely to choose invasive procedures.

The research team noted the power of the physician. When the physician recommended intervention (49 of 59 cases), 90% of patients followed the recommendation. When the physician recommended no intervention (six of 59), all patients chose not to have it, and in four cases where the physician made no specific recommendation, all patients chose no intervention.

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