Education and debate

Patients' prerogatives and perceptions of benefit

^a Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast BT12 6BJ

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.

A prominent medical educator reputedly once told a group of students: "Half of what we teach you is wrong; our problem is to determine which half." However, exposing the scientific frailties of current medical practice is still a relatively novel pursuit in British medical . . . [Full text of this article]

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