Dr. Smith Townsend knelt on the filthy train station floor, the patient lying in front of him with a bullet wound in his back. The patient was clinically stable for the moment, so Townsend turned his attention to the wound, convinced a quick removal of the bullet would offer his patient the best chance of survival. Fueled by an action imperative, Townsend took his index finger—ungloved, unsterilized, probably only moments earlier… (Read more and comment at Forbes)
My Take on Shared Decision Making
Put simply, shared decision making is the gold standard — the sine qua non* — for how medical decisions ought to be made. The pipe medical choice is rarely a function of medical facts alone. Tough decisions require value judgments, and it is the patient’s valuesthat often determine which choice is best.
An operation cannot be a “success” unless it was the right course of action to take for an individual patient… (Read more and view comments at IMDF)