Informed consent is broadly endorsed as a process that should facilitate shared decision making between a patient (or surrogate) and a physician (or other clinician). The goal of this collaborative process is to help patients make decisions that reflect what matters most to them, based on their guiding beliefs and values. Although there may be broad consensus that shared decision making is expected, it is not clear that physicians agree on what "shared" means. How much influence should physicians try to exert on patients, and how should it be communicated?

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