{
  "abstract": "Objectives To elicit the benefits of shared decision-making to doctors who are champions of this approach.Design A qualitative interview study that used practical thematic analysis.Setting We identified a purposive international sample of doctors in active clinical practice who were recognised champions of shared decision-making, working in various clinical disciplines.Participants 24 doctors in active clinical practice were interviewed; 14 were male and 10 were female; 20 had been in clinical practice for over 10 years (range 1–30). 12 practised in North America, 10 in Europe, 1 in South America and 1 in Asia; 4 doctors worked in internal medicine, 4 in primary care, 5 in surgery, 3 in paediatrics, 3 in oncology and 1 in each of the following disciplines: emergency medicine, palliative care, geriatrics, physical medicine and rehabilitation, anaesthesiology, and cardiology.Results This selected sample of doctors consistently reported that shared decision-making provided benefits to themselves, their patients and their teams. Shared decision-making reinforced and enhanced their self-identity as ethical professionals, supporting patient autonomy, increasing their professional fulfilment and reducing their risk of burnout. These intrinsic benefits accompanied reports of other consequential benefits, namely, patients’ achieving better-informed, preference-sensitive decisions, a higher likelihood of improved patient outcomes, improved efficiency and team function. The doctors viewed the approach as providing connectedness, shared responsibility resulting in a lighter burden, acting as a buttress against moral injury and the emotional strain of clinical work and, where relevant, mitigation against becoming the second victim of a bad or unexpected outcome.Conclusions and relevance Doctors who champion shared decision-making report significant benefits to themselves and their patients. These benefits have not been widely reported, which has implications for motivating doctors to adopt shared decision-making. Instead of addressing presumed gaps in communication skills, it might be better to highlight the positive impact on professional fulfilment and the protective effect of shared decision-making.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Glyn Elwyn"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Hannah B Leavitt"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Ross University School of Medicine - Barbados Campus, Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados"
      ],
      "name": "Mallory Vesling"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Christopher Rex Jacobs"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Southern Denmark Department of Regional Health Research, Odense, Region Syddanmark, Denmark"
      ],
      "name": "Lea Lund"
    }
  ],
  "title": "‘A return on investment’. How shared decision-making benefits doctors: a key informant interview study",
  "uid": "ad8a3076-0630-5f22-8311-80b6211e84d7"
}