Information Disclosure in Informed Consent

ABSTRACT

@#Informed consent has been recognised as an essential part of clinical practice, giving ethical and legal legitimacy to medical intervention. There is no universal standard on the amount and type of information that a patient is entitled to and needs to be adequately disclosed. This article proposes nine information that will assist the doctor in providing adequate information for a patient to evaluate whether to authorise medical intervention. The recommended information are (i) diagnosis, prognosis and its uncertainties; (ii) nature of proposed medical intervention; (iii) the expected benefit of proposed medical intervention; (iv) the potential risk of proposed medical intervention; (v) alternative to proposed medical intervention; (vi) progress of proposed medical intervention; (vii) opportunity for a second medical opinion and to seek further details; (viii) costs of proposed and alternative medical intervention; and (ix) the person responsible for implementing medical intervention.