Can Consent to Participate in Clinical Research Involve Shared Decision Making?

Shared decision making honors patient autonomy and improves patient comprehension and therefore should be a part of every clinical decision a patient makes. Use of shared decision making in research informed consent conversations is more complicated due to diverse and potentially divergent investigator and patient interests, along with the presence of clinical equipoise. This article clarifies these different interests and discusses ways in which shared decision making can be applied in research. Provided there is transparency about competing interests, patient-centered and values-focused communication approaches embodied in shared decision making can support the ethical recruitment of patients for clinical research.