The Importance of the Informed Consent for Interventional Radiology Procedures j Hector Ferral, MD ABSTRACT: The informed consent process has acquired great importance in the practice of medicine. In the past, it was deemed that the patient should trust the doctor as the decision maker; however, this began to change more than 100 years ago when the concept of patient autonomy acquired importance. Ideally, the con- sent process should include a clear understanding of the patient’s health condition, explanation of the pro- cedure, discussion of benefits, risks, and alternatives to the procedure. The purpose of this article is to describe the ideal consent process focused on an interventional radiology practice. (J Radiol Nurs 2016;35:33-36.) KEYWORDS: Informed consent; Interventional radiology; Lung biopsy. INTRODUCTION The informed consent process is probably one of the most important events in current medical practice. During the informed consent process, it is the health care provider’s responsibility to explain a treatment, procedure, or surgery to the patient (Ripley, Tiffany, Lehmann, & Silverman, 2015). This explanation must be conducted in such a way that the patient under- stands the proposed treatment, should be able to ask questions, and, ultimately, should be able to make an informed decision regarding acceptance or refusal of the proposed treatment (Ripley et al., 2015). The con- sent form by itself is a legal document that confirms that a conversation was conducted between the health care provider and the patient; however, the consent process is much more than a legal act, it is the oppor- tunity for the health care provider to establish a rapport with the patient and explain to the patient the therapeutic alternatives for the specific condition that the patient may suffer. It has recently been estab- lished that the consent process in current practice is often incomplete and does not fulfill patient’s expecta- tions (Ripley et al., 2015). This article will focus on the ideal approach to a consent process in the field of inter- ventional radiology. This article will also address some legal aspects of the consent process and last, will address some challenges that are encountered during the process of obtaining consent from a patient. The Informed Consent The informed consent process has acquired great importance in the practice of medicine. In the past, it was deemed that the patient should trust the doctor as the decision maker (Requarth, 2015). However, this concept began changing more than 100 years ago, starting in 1914, when it was established that pa- tients had the right to participate in the decision pro- cess regarding any procedure performed on their body (Murray, 1990). For a consent process to be valid, a patient needs to understand the disease process, un- derstand the procedure to be performed, the risks, ben- efits, and alternatives to treatment, and understand their right to refuse a proposed treatment (Murray, 1990; Ripley et al., 2015). Legally, consent for a proce- dure can be rendered by a patient in the correct state of mind; by the patient’s spouse or legal companion, a family member or next of kin, or by a person whom Hector Ferral, MD, Senior Clinical Educator, Section of Interventional Radiology, Department of Radiology, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL. Corresponding author: Hector Ferral, Department of Radiology, NorthShore University HealthSystem, 2650 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, IL. E-mail: hectorferral@gmail.com 1546-0843/$36.00 Copyright Ó 2016 by the Association for Radiologic & Imaging Nursing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jradnu.2016.01.010 VOLUME 35 ISSUE 1 33 www.radiologynursing.org