> Working With Health Care Providers: Shared Decision-Making
An important part of quality health care is shared decision-making between you and your health care provider. In shared decision-making, your provider shares information about your diagnostic tests and treatments and together you make decisions that best fit with your preferences, needs and values.
Shared decision-making is also an important part of care in CAM, especially for people living with cancer. Alternative therapies (those used instead of standard medical care) are not recommended. While some complementary therapies can be well integrated into standard care, others have dangerous side effects. Some interfere with the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation and some make surgery more dangerous and slow recovery. Including your health care provider in decision-making about complementary therapies can help avoid such problems. Unfortunately, many people who use these therapies don’t share this information with their health care providers and this may cause harm [8,20].
Talking with a health care provider can be hard for some people when they want to try something in addition to the care their health care team is giving. However, you should never hesitate to bring up issues that can impact your health. Your well-being is your health care provider’s primary concern. Knowing what additional therapies you are taking (or thinking of taking) is part of giving good care. In fact, the Society for Integrative Oncology’s practice guidelines for health care providers lists asking people about their CAM use as its first recommendation [3]. Working together, you and your health care provider can make decisions about complementary therapies that offer potential benefits without compromising your health.
Talking with Health Care Providers About Complementary Therapies
Don’t be shy. Be open with your health care provider and share any thoughts, interests and concerns about complementary therapies.
Make a list. Before your office visit, write down the things you want to talk with your health care provider about and do your best to get through them all before you leave. This is a great tip for any office visit, not just those where you want to talk about complementary therapies.
Be specific about each therapy. For supplements, make a note of the name, the manufacturer and how much of the supplement you’re thinking about taking (or bring the supplements with you to your provider visit). For other types of therapies, make a note of the exact therapy, who (if anyone) will be providing it and how often you’d like to use it.
Keep a symptom diary. When you start a therapy, keep a daily diary of any symptoms (or relief from symptoms) that you’re feeling.
Discuss your use of complementary therapies at each office visit: Use your symptom diary to talk about how you’ve been feeling while using the therapy.
For more about talking with health care providers,click here.
Updated 03/11/09
