Improving the Informed Consent Conversation: A Standardized Checklist that Is Patient Centered, Quality Driven, and Legally Sound

Abstract

The informed consent conversation is a key component of patient-centered medicine, a concept that emphasizes the importance of patients actively participating in their care. Studies reveal that many informed consent conversations throughout medical practice lack essential elements and leave patients' needs unmet. This review addresses these deficiencies, discusses solutions, and introduces a standardized checklist that values the patient's role in shared decision making during the informed consent conversation. The checklist could be particularly helpful to interventional radiologists and other consulting physicians who usually obtain informed consent early in their encounters with patients.