Medical consultation nowadays generally proceeds in accordance with the process of shared decision-making (SDM). In the literature on medical communication, the general characteristics of this process seem to be agreed upon. With respect to the specific division of labour between doctor and patient, however, different alternatives are suggested. In this paper we approach the process of SDM from the perspective of the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation. We translate the contributions of doctor and patient to this process in terms of the ideal model of a critical discussion, taking into account both the general characteristics and the different alternatives for the division of labour proposed in the literature. The resulting analytical tool enables a more precise analysis of the process of SDM and creates a starting point for a well-founded evaluation of the contributions of doctor and patient to this process.
More details here