Peter Ubel

Some medical decisions have been labeled as being “patient sensitive”: the right decision, in such cases depends on patient preferences. One patient will prefer X and another Y, because the two patients have different attitudes toward the goodness and badness of the outcomes associated with X and Y. Ideally, when making such decisions, patients will be informed about their alternatives and (with the help of a medical professional) integrate that information with their preferences to make the “right” choice.

In this talk, based on my book Critical Decisions, I show why people are often not up to this task. They mispredict how health outcomes will affect their lives. They make decisions unaware of how their thoughts and feelings are being influenced by unconscious biases. What can we do to help patients make better decisions? And how should these decisional biases inform our ideas about what it truly means for patients to make free and informed decisions?