Advances in Shared Decision Making in Brazil: The role of patient autonomy in curriculum reform, health system and clinical care.

Abstract

Clinical practice in Brazil has rapidly transformed. Doctor-patient relationships are the focus of these transformations, either within health policies or in the context of medical training. The Brazilian Curriculum Guidelines have emphasized the doctor-patient relationship as part of medical skills and competences, based on patient-centered care. In this article, we present the political advances in patient-centered care. In addition, we address an overview of the Brazilian status quo of decision support tools. Finally, we share experiences in curriculum reform for the advances of communication skills and the interfaces with narrative medicine and the arts in curricular medical training as a means to advance towards the practice of shared decision making.