title: Twelve myths about shared decision making.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  As shared decision makes increasing headway in healthcare policy, it is under more scrutiny. We sought to identify and dispel the most prevalent myths about shared decision making.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 20 years in the shared decision making field one of the author has repeatedly heard mention of the same barriers to scaling up shared decision making across the healthcare spectrum. We conducted a selective literature review relating to shared decision making to further investigate these commonly perceived barriers and to seek evidence supporting their existence or not.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Beliefs about barriers to scaling up shared decision making represent a wide range of historical, cultural, financial and scientific concerns. We found little evidence to support twelve of the most common beliefs about barriers to scaling up shared decision making, and indeed found evidence to the contrary.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our selective review of the literature suggests that twelve of the most commonly perceived barriers to scaling up shared decision making across the healthcare spectrum should be termed myths as they can be dispelled by evidence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our review confirms that the current debate about shared decision making must not deter policy makers and clinicians from pursuing its scaling up across the healthcare continuum.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre of the CHU of Québec, St-François d'Assise Hospital, Québec, Canada; Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine, Laval University, Québec, Canada. Electronic address: france.legare@mfa.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: France
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Légaré
authors.affiliation: Research Centre of the CHU of Québec, St-François d'Assise Hospital, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thompson-Leduc
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D010358:Patient Participation
keywords: Communication; Decision aids; Implementation; Shared decision making