Wouter Leclercq

A decade of litigation regarding surgical informed consent in the Netherlands 135 8 explored in surgical practice. Good communication requires substantial training and is often offset in practice by lack of consultation time. Improving doctor’s skills and knowledge in these specific aspects also appears to be necessary to improve the SIC process and patient care in general. Modern tools as e-health or multimedia programs could be a useful adjunct to the current SIC process. Different studies investigated the use of multimedia in informed consent and found significant improvement of patient satisfaction and understanding. 21,27,50,51 Although the patient-doctor relationship remains crucial for the SIC process, multimedia is a promising contribution. Further work is required to establish standardized SIC information within guidelines and determine which type of modern intervention is the best practice in clinical informed consent. In conclusion, this study presents new information on patient’s perspectives of malpractice claims and MDB decisions regarding SIC in the Netherlands between 2004-2013. The majority of SIC related claims and complaints were focused on postoperative complications. Future effort should focus on better transfer of SIC information by improving doctor-patient communication, standardize SIC information within guidelines and use modern tools to enhance shared decision making.