Community Conversations

Shared Decision Making

Shared Decision Making (SDM) has become a hallmark of patient-centered care. Caregivers at all levels are realizing the importance of their patients view and role in their own treatment “nothing for me, without me.” Engaging patients going through surgical procedures or with chronic disease as part of a shared decision making process and allowing the patient to play a more active role in their own treatment is a goal of AltusLearn.

Although physicians indicate substantial interest in SDM, implementing SDM using decisional aids into clinical care is often complex and difficult to implement. Since high levels of uncertainty may exist health care providers must help patients understand the potential risks versus benefits of different treatment options. Patients who are more engaged in their health care decision-making are more likely to experience confidence in and satisfaction with treatment decisions and increased trust in their providers. To implement SDM into routine practice, physicians and other health care providers need to understand the components of SDM and the approaches to supporting and facilitating this process as part of the care and or procedure they have propose.

AltusLearn is developing innovative interactive Continuing Medical Education (CME) for the Physician and accompanying patient aids that augment the physician education. This type of education and patient aides are designed to help the patient better understand and to cope with the burden of the disease as compared to the burden of therapy. This new innovative type of education with shared decision patient aids will support the many factors that influence SDM for medical care and outcomes resulting from the process. It will also assist in the successful SDM process, and strategies for implementing SDM in daily practice. We will present a conceptual model illustrating the components of SDM and provide Decisional Aids for facilitating SDM in daily practice.

Patient care is becoming extremely complex, and patients’ treatment choices have serious implications for their health outcomes and the quality of their life. Evidence based medical care (EBM) supporting many decisions in patient care are limited or incomplete. Often individuals differ in how they weigh the tradeoffs of different choices. SDM is most useful for decisions in which there is more than 1 medically reasonable option, and the choice of which option is best for a given patient depends on his or her preferences and values. AltusLearn is beginning to solicit educational producers for interactive shared decision making education and decisional aids that will revolutionize how we approach both physician and patient education.