Shared Decision-Making projects focus on understanding what the major information needs of lung cancer patients and their caregiver are along the lung cancer journey – including screening, treatment, and survivorship.
As patient-centered healthcare advances, there is growing recognition among patients, caregivers, and clinicians about the potential benefits of a shared decision-making (SDM) approach to evaluate and choose the best therapeutic approach for each patient. SDM has been defined as a process in which patients and their clinicians discuss the options for treatment, the benefits and harms of each therapy, and the patient’s preferences before making a collaborative decision about how to proceed. Instead of relying solely on clinician-directed decision making and/or information sharing only by physician (also termed informed decision-making), SDM encourages two-directional patient-physician communication.
LUNGevity Foundation believes that all lung cancer patients should receive patient-centered healthcare. This means “care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensures that patient values guide all clinical decisions.”
Effective patient-clinician communication and shared decision-making are the basic tenets of patient-centered care. Only an educated and empowered patient can engage in shared decision-making.
