Shared decision making (SDM), the concept by which patients and healthcare providers work closely together to arrive at personalized treatment-related decisions, can have significant positive impacts for individuals with hemophilia. It fosters a reciprocal and collegial provider-patient dynamic in which both parties arrive at key decisions only after open, two-way discussions about patient/caregiver goals, values, and desires.
As a relatively new approach to care, it sheds the one-size-fits-all method associated with a more paternalistic model whereby patients and caregivers – the latter when the patient is a child or otherwise not able to make decisions – function in a mostly passive role, deferring to their providers on decisions about their care. Instead, SDM embraces the patient-as-partner style, which cultivates a truly reciprocal relationship.
