Ethical aspects of risk communication

The essence of risk communication is to provide patients with a clear understanding of the benefits, harms, trade-offs and uncertainties of any proposed treatment. Doctors often assume that they do this well, but often overestimate the numeracy among even well-educated patients. Because doctors and patients make complex decisions using both intuitive and deliberative thinking, there are hidden sources of bias in decision-making on both sides. Recent research suggests that patients are best equipped to understand risk when they are simply able to ‘get the gist’ of the risk involved in their treatment.