Collaborative physician-patient planning and professional liability: opening the legal door to unconventional medicine.

This article explores the possibility of using collaborative planning between physicians and patients to minimize disputes and litigation regarding complementary and alternative medicine. It argues that collaborative planning changes the context for understanding professional liability, moving it from tort concepts that rest upon standards of care to a contract model that rests upon the doctrine of assumption of risk. The article also suggests that the premises of mutual decision making can benefit conventional medical practice in general.