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Patient preferences are an essential component of the patient voice and their elicitation and subsequent use in patient-centered clinical decision support (PC CDS) can advance patient-centered care. As PC CDS continues to advance, it is vital that understanding and incorporating patient preferences continues to progress in tandem. The taxonomy presented in this report provides an organizing framework that includes six domains for patient preference information most relevant to PC CDS. The report also highlights remaining knowledge gaps and outlines a research agenda to enhance the field’s understanding of incorporating patient preferences into PC CDS in operational settings. 

About the Taxonomy

This report is based on a scoping review of peer-reviewed and grey literature relevant to patient preferences in PC CDS. Key informant interviews and a focus group also informed the development of a preference taxonomy as well as a review of key implementation considerations.

The report synthesizes findings into six preference domains relevant to PC CDS, including:

• Personal characteristics
• Communication
• Access and care experience
• Engagement
• Data
• Healthcare services

The formative nature of the work on patient preferences in PC CDS presents challenges to the operationalization of preferences in care, and highlights the importance of key considerations for collecting and incorporating patient preferences within PC CDS, including:

• Stability of patient preferences
• Capture/collection of patient preferences
• Use of patient preferences
• Measuring concordance with patient preferences

How to Use the Taxonomy

The taxonomy presented in this report provides an organizing framework for the types of patient preference information most relevant to PC CDS, which CDS developers can use to develop new PC CDS tools. This taxonomy can also support healthcare provider organizations in developing workflows to capture patient preference information and configuring PC CDS tools to support care informed by these preferences. Finally, the report outlines six areas of future work that researchers can investigate to further advance the field of PC CDS.

Suggested Citation: Kuperman G, Nanji K, Cope EL, Dullabh PM, Desai PJ, Catlett M, Weinberg S, Hoyt S, and the CDSiC Outcomes and Objectives Workgroup. Outcomes and Objectives Workgroup: Taxonomy of Patient Preferences. Prepared under Contract No. 75Q80120D00018. AHRQ Publication No. 23-0038-EF. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; May 2023.