{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.026143790849673203, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0007262164124909223, 'mean_word_length': 5.721951219512195, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Shared Decision Making, Decision Aids, and Risk Communication

This special issue on the future of shared decision making features several new research articles, reviews of the state of the science, and perspectives. As this issue went to press, a New York Times feature on cancer care stressed the difficulties patients (and perhaps journalists) face in navigating the medical care system, obtaining good information, and making informed choices. For more than 2 decades, Medical Decision Making has published research about patients choosing between alternative therapies in ways that are consistent with their preferences, particularly risky therapies and patients with cancer. Today, all sectors of the health care system—providers, payers, advocacy and consumer groups, industry, the lay press, and government—recognize that improvements in decision making under uncertainty, and, in particular, in communicating effectively about risk, are urgently needed. In the public, there is widespread belief that physicians, health systems, and regulatory agencies mishandle information about risk. Many policy experts now believe that, in the near future, health systems and payers should begin measuring the quality of decision making and communication in everyday care and that, perhaps, performance on these measures will play a role in consumer choice and even reimbursement.