No disagreement on "no one here is an expert..."

I am not sure about the "I would get truly expert advice and then follow it..."

Had I done that, I would have on mone-therapy vice triplet therapy, likely become resistant, then a downward path from there. I did listen, decided that was not the best choice nor it was it the best recommendation, it was perfunctory care..

Clinicians should not unduly interfere with allowing people to make informed decisions about their health and life consistent with their values, interests, and preferences.

Respect for autonomy does not exist in a vacuum, and leaving patients alone to navigate health care decisions would relinquish clinicians’ responsibility for promoting patients’ best interests.

Even as patients are encouraged to be the ultimate decider on what is done to their body, it is the clinician who possesses the medical expertise to advise them on making that decision.

Clinicians can balance these professional obligations to patients by engaging them in shared decision-making (SDM), “an approach where clinicians and patients share the best available evidence when faced with the task of making decisions, and where patients are supported to consider options, to achieve informed preferences.”

This model recognizes both that the clinician possesses expert medical knowledge and should not be relegated to a bystander role, and that patients have expert knowledge of their own lives, values, and interests to help inform and guide the decision-making. This model is also designed to avoid the undesirable extremes of patients as completely passive participants and clinicians serving solely as information purveyors without any advisory role.

People have innumerable sources for gathering medical and health information, but when they come for a medical evaluation, they generally want, and believe they will benefit from, clinician recommendations, not simply a laundry list of medical options. The shared decision making model advances clinicians as guides to the medically appropriate options while respecting and recognizing patients’ values and preferences. This promotes both quality care and respect for patients’ autonomy.

Kevin