Course Welcome

The principles of shared decision-making encourage better alignment of medical care with patients’ unique preferences and values.10, 11 In the case of IBD, shared decision-making requires that doctors understand how their patients decide among available treatments. In theory, prescribing a biologic that precisely maps to a patient’s preferences may lead to improved compliance, better QOL, enhanced clinical outcomes, and lower healthcare costs compared to a less personalized approach of assigning therapy.12-15 But this can be difficult to achieve in the course of everyday clinical practice. It’s important to find quick and easy yet effective techniques to personalize care, particularly in complex situations like optimizing whether, when, and how to initiate biological therapy in IBD.