Patient engagement--what works?

The recent focus on patient engagement acknowledges that patients have an important role to play in their own health care. This includes reading, understanding and acting on health information (health literacy), working together with clinicians to select appropriate treatments or management options (shared decision making), and providing feedback on health care processes and outcomes (quality improvement). Various interventions designed to help patients play an effective role have been evaluated in trials and systematic reviews. This article outlines the evidence in support of the most promising interventions.