If you think this book will tell you how to implement evidence-based patient choice, then don't buy it. It won't do that, and, if you thought about it for a moment, you would recognise that it never could. There are too many variables before we even get to how we differ as individuals.

No, what this book does is to make you think about the issues that might be important to influence patient choice. Having a cast list that includes the usual suspects gives the book power, and the editors seem to have given them a thoughtful pill before they started writing.

Obviously risk is discussed at some length, and there is a mine of interesting references and perspectives that make one realise that there's more to this than meets the eye. And what about complex issues like the interaction of health economics and patient choice. It's covered, and well. But the most gripping chapter is Angela Coulter's vision of the future, which makes you realise just how much change there is to come. Before the last chapter, evidence-based patient choice could still be an option. After it, there's simply no argument.

 

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