Data-driven shared decision-making: a paradigm shift

At first sight, shared decision-making and data science seem like two vastly different fields. Yet, despite their differences, both fields could, if combined, reinforce clinical utility for both. Here we describe a new paradigm called data-driven shared decision-making (dSDM), an extension of the existing shared decision-making paradigm. In dSDM, data’s role and its interaction with the patient and doctor are made explicit. Furthermore, we describe the opportunities and challenges of combining data science and shared decision-making into this new paradigm. We believe that dSDM will bridge the gap between the need for patient empowerment and the need for more personalized medicine.