title: Patients' prerogatives and perceptions of benefit.
abstract: Patients today demand more information about their treatment. Doctors, however, seem reluctant to cast aside ingrained habits of paternalism, believing they can best interpret therapeutic choices for their patients. Whether doctors can be more objective and effective than patients in interpreting the "probabilities" of medical evidence is open to question. On the other hand, the exercise of choice by patients may itself have a bearing on the probabilities of outcome. Involving patients more in making therapeutic choices is justified if doctors can present options in an unbiased and effective manner and if the process improves the outcome of the care delivered.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, Royal Victoria Hospital.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kee
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003142:Communication; D032882:Comprehension; D030881:Disclosure; D036262:Empirical Research; D006801:Humans; D026706:Paternalism; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D010465:Perception; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D018570:Risk Assessment; D036302:Therapeutic Human Experimentation; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D035501:Uncertainty