“Realistic medicine” puts the person receiving health and social care at the centre of decisions made about their care. The term Realistic Medicine was first introduced by Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, Catherine Calderwood, in her annual report from 2016 and is being embedded across Scotland, championed by local and national clinical leaders.
The Realistic Medicine website sets out the key concepts of Realistic Medicine:
- Listening to understand patients problems and preferences;
- Sharing decision making between healthcare professionals and their patients;
- Ensuring that patients have all the understandable information they need to make an informed choice;
- Moving away from the ‘doctor knows best’ culture to ensure a more equal partnership with people;
- Supporting healthcare professionals to be innovative, to pursue continuous quality improvement and to manage risk better;
- Reducing the harm and waste caused by both over-provision and under-provision of care;
- Identify and reduce unwarranted variation in clinical practices.