Clinical anisotropy: A case for shared decision making in the age of too much data and patient dis-integration

Today, in the age of big data, we are more capable than ever before. But even having the world at our disposal with naught but the touch of a button, we find ourselves exceedingly vulnerable in the patient chair. With insurmountable amounts of knowledge being published and disseminated around the world, how can clinicians keep up and what can be done about it? And sitting in the patient chair, bewildered by the ever-changing landscape of medicine at the blink of an eye, how can we, as patients, ever hope to be part of the conversations revolving around our own health? In this work, we explore the present-day problems of big data in the clinical context, how failing to integrate patients can result in detrimental outcomes, and what shared decision making can do about it.