A Patient-Centered Approach to Clinical Practice Guidelines in Otolaryngology

Patient education is used to engage patients in their own health care and is relevant in most clinical situations. Shared decision making (SDM) is used to engage patients when a choice needs to be made about a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure and the medical evidence does not indicate which choice is best. American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) include multiple action statements that may benefit from patient education or SDM. In this commentary, we discuss patient education and SDM using examples from AAO-HNS CPGs. We believe that use of patient education and decision support materials for SDM will enhance the effectiveness of SDM and improve the uptake of CPGs. We issue a call to action for all stakeholders to consider how to put these materials into the hands of our patients.