Beyond Costs and Benefits: Understanding How Patients Make Health Care Decisions -- The Oncologist

CONCLUSION:
Physicians are increasingly recognizing that many medical decisions are not purely medical decisions, but hinge on patient preferences. This recognition of patients' preferences has raised the challenge of finding ways to communicate the costs and benefits of treatments in ways that patients not only comprehend, but can also integrate with their own values to help the clinician determine what treatment choice is best for that given patient.