Shared decision making is a process that seeks to support clinical care by active collaboration between patient and clinicians through conversation. The use of decision aids can support shared decision making in practice by educating and engaging patients before their medical visit and/or by supporting conversations between patient and clinicians during the medical visit. Usually, decision aids will highlight that a medical decision needs to be made, provide evidence‐based information regarding the management options, and integrate the individual values and preferences of patients when considering the available options. Decision aids have shown positive impacts on attributes related to the decision‐making process such as increasing patients' knowledge, accurate risk perception, and decisions that are compatible with their values, but with variable effects on health outcomes (e.g., cost reduction, medication adherence). Despite evidence supporting the use of decision aids, their implementation is hindered by multiple factors at different levels (e.g., patient, clinician, healthcare system), such as time constraints, lack of training, and lack of consensus about content. Possible solutions to implementation barriers will likely require policy changes that support and incentivize the use of decision aids in practice.