Oncology encounters are highly complex. Communication is suboptimal and there is evidence that patients and clinicians often fail to “get on the same page.” Shared decision making is being promoted as a means of facilitating effective and patient-centered communication in oncology. Here, Dr. Aaron Leppin and colleagues survey patients and clinicians immediately after an oncology encounter to determine the extent to which they agree on whether a cancer care decision was made during that encounter. The extent of agreement is impressively low. These findings have implications for the way we think about shared decision making and the validity of its measurement in oncology. (click here for abstract)
by Aaron Leppin
