Patient Consent Forms Should Educate Not Intimidate, Experts Urge
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - 13:42
in Health & Medicine
The way current patient consent forms are written -- as formal, legal documents -- plants a litigious relationship in both the patient's and the surgeon's mind even before treatment has begun. Researchers propose a set of five recommendations to return consent forms to their intended purpose -- that of allowing patients to meaningfully take part in the decision-making process.