Shared decision making may not cut costs, overtreatment

Despite some well-documented benefits of clinicians sharing decision making with patients, literature does not support its potential to reduce overtreatment and costs, according to a Viewpoint published earlier this week in the online Journal of the American Medical Association. The author states that in studies conducted to evaluate the influence of shared decision making on treatment utilization, there has not been a disentanglement of clinicians’ vs. patients’ influence on utilization. He also states that these studies oversimplify how patients make decisions about their treatment options.  

Source: Journal of the American Medical Association