Objective: To provide a contemporary resource to update clinicians and researchers on the current state of assessment of patient preferences.
Data sources: Published studies and literature regarding patient preferences, evidence-based practice, and patient-centered management in otolaryngology.
Review methods: Patients make choices based on both physician input and their own preferences. These preferences are informed by personal values and attitudes, and they ideally result from a deliberative evaluation of the risks, benefits, and other outcomes pertaining to medical care. To date, rigorous evaluation of patient preferences for otolaryngologic conditions has not been integrated into clinical practice or research. This installment of the "Evidence-Based Medicine in Otolaryngology" series focuses on formal assessment of patient preferences and the optimal methods to determine them.
Conclusions: Methods have been developed to optimize our understanding of patient preferences.
Implications for practice: Understanding these patient preferences may help promote an evidence-based approach to the care of individual patients.
Keywords: best-worst scaling; clinical practice; clinical research; contingent valuation; discrete choice experiment; evidence-based medicine; otolaryngology; patient preferences; preference methods; shared decision making.