Target Audience

Healthcare providers of all specialties may benefit from the information presented.

Goals and Objectives

In this podcast, Dr. Lauris Kaldjian explains the need for ‘shared decision making’ between patients and physicians, why it is important and details steps physicians can take to make that happen. He also offers insight to help physicians avoid slipping into manipulation or coercion when faced with certain situations.  At the conclusion of this activity, the learner should be able to:

• Provide an ethical justification for shared decision making in the patient-physician’s relationship;
• Explain why physicians should inform, recommend, and sometimes attempt to persuade, but never manipulate or coerce patients;
• Describe the risk of paternalism in shared decision making and ways to avoid it.

Course Information

CME Release Date: 1/21/2022
Valid for credit through:  1/20/2025
Course type: Enduring Material
Estimated time of completion: 45 minutes

Credits Available

Southern Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Southern Medical Association designates this Enduring Material for a maximum of .75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

AAPA: AAPA accepts certificates of participation for educational activities certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from organizations accredited by ACCME or a recognized state medical society. 

AANPCP: The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program (AANPCP) accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from organizations accredited by the ACCME.

Healthcare Professionals
For information on applicability and acceptance of continuing education credit for this activity, please consult your professional licensing board.  All healthcare professionals who are not MDs or DOs will receive a certificate of participation.

Instructions for Participation and Credit

This activity is designed to be completed within the time designated; learners should claim only those credits that reflect the time actually spent in the activity. To successfully earn credit, participants must complete the activity online during the valid credit period noted, following these steps:

• Read the goals and objectives, accreditation information, and author disclosures.
• Login in below to study the educational content and references.
• Complete the attestation, post-test (if applicable), and evaluation.

Upon successful completion of these components, your certificate will be processed and emailed from customerservice@sma.org within approximately 1 hour. Credits will be archived for 6 years; at any point within this time period you may login to your account to print a duplicate copy of your certificate.

Disclosures of Conflicts of Interest

Southern Medical Association (SMA) requires instructors, planners, managers, and all other individuals who are in a position to control the content of this activity to disclose conflicts of interest (COI) with ineligible entities within the last 24 months of the development of this activity. All identified COIs are thoroughly vetted and mitigated prior to the release of the activity. SMA is committed to providing its learners with high quality activities and related materials that promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial interest.

The following individuals have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Special Guest

Lauris C. Kaldjian, MD, PhD
Dr. Lauris Kaldjian received his MD from the University of Michigan. He went east to New Haven, Connecticut, for training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Yale University, where he also received an MDiv and PhD in Christian ethics. He then returned to the Midwest, to Iowa City, Iowa, where for over 20 years he has been on the faculty at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

At the University of Iowa, he is a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, directs the Program in Bioethics and Humanities, holds the Richard M. Caplan Chair in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities, and is busy as a teacher of medical ethics to students and trainees while also serving on the hospital’s Ethics Consult Service and pursuing a range of research interests that include practical wisdom, virtue ethics, conscientious practice, ethics education, goals of care, and end of life decision making. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Dr. Kaldjian has served on the ethics committees of the United Network for Organ Sharing, the Society of General Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians, and the Iowa Medical Society. He also served as a deputy editor for the Journal of General Internal Medicine and currently serves on the editorial board of Communication & Medicine.