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I have read the exciting research titled ‘Shared decision making between older people with multimorbidity and GPs: a qualitative study’.1
The strong point of this research is emphasising the enhanced burden of multimorbidity on GPs in ageing societies. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been taught in medical schools and can be applied to cases with less multimorbidity. However, managing older patients with multimorbidity involves much uncertainty and multiple healthcare professionals. The complicated situations may make the process of EBM challenging and cause GPs and older patients to be less confident in shared decision making (SDM).
Effective SDM in multimorbidity of older patients demands quality in continuity of care and clinical experience. As the BJGP article shows, experienced GPs acquire their abilities in SDM and EBM through multiple clinical experiences with reflection.2 Furthermore, experienced GPs respect continuity of care for effective SDM among older patients with uncertainty caused by multimorbidity.3 Thus, for preparing medicine in ageing societies, GPs should be educated effectively in clinical situations with deep reflection on their SDM and collaboration with various medical professionals.
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