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PodcastDXAuthor: PodcastDX
PodcastDX is an interview based weekly series. Guests share experience based medical insight for our global audience. We have found that many people are looking for a platform, a way to share their voice and the story that their health journey has created. Each one is unique since even with the same diagnosis, symptoms and the way each person will react to a diagnosis, is different. Sharing what they have experienced and overcome is a powerful way our guests can teach others with similar ailments. Many of our guests are engaging in self-advocacy while navigating a health condition, many are complex and without a road-map to guide them along their journey they have developed their own. Sharing stories may help others avoid delays in diagnosis or treatment or just give hope to others that are listening. Sharing is empowering and has a healing quality of its own. Our podcast provides tips, hints, and support for common healthcare conditions. Our guests and our listeners are just like you- navigating the complex medical world. We hope to ease some tension we all face when confronted with a new diagnosis. We encourage anyone wanting to share their story with our listeners to email us at info@PodcastDX.com Language: en Genres: Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, Medicine Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Patients as Partners: Shared Decision Making in Medicine
Episode 13
Monday, 16 March, 2026
This week we are discussing the rise of a new type of health care where the patients play a vital role in their medical care. Patients as partners in care are at the heart of shared decision making (SDM), a model where clinicians and patients deliberately work together to choose tests and treatments that fit both best evidence and the patient's values and life context. What shared decision making means SDM is a collaborative process in which clinicians contribute clinical expertise while patients contribute their goals, preferences, and lived experience. Core elements include at least two participants (patient and clinician), information sharing in both directions, building a shared understanding of options, and aiming for agreement on what to do next. From paternalism to partnership Historically, medical care was strongly paternalistic, with clinicians deciding and patients expected to comply, but from the 1970s onward, growing emphasis on autonomy and patient‑centered care began to challenge this model. The term "shared decision-making" appeared in ethical discussions in the 1970s and early 1980s and gained momentum in the 1980s alongside evidence that patients increasingly wanted to participate in decisions. Why patients as partners matters SDM is associated with improved patient knowledge, more accurate risk perception, reduced decisional conflict, and treatment plans that better reflect what matters most to patients. Studies link SDM to higher satisfaction, better adherence, improved quality of life, lower anxiety, and in some preference‑sensitive conditions, less invasive and sometimes less costly care.
