Evidence-Based Medicine Must Incorporate Patient Preferences

A recent JAMA editorial stressed that scientific evidence is not sufficient for making patient care decisions.  One guideline is that all patients should receive statin drugs.  However, a study showed that 70% of diabetic patients with low cardiac risk who were told about the limited benefit and potential side effects of statins refused to take the drugs.  It is the job of doctors to present the evidence and the options (yes, that should include chelation therapy for patients with vascular disease), but it is the right and responsibility for the patient to make the ultimate decision on what therapies they want to utilize.

See Montori VM, JAMA 2013;310:2503-2504.

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