Evidence Based Medicine: Patient Decision Making

What is a Decision Aid:

• A decision aid is a tool used to inform patients about available treatments along with potential benefits, risks and costs, during clinical encounters.  Decision aids provide evidence-based information about a health condition, the options, associated benefits, harms, probabilities, and scientific uncertainties resulting in a shared, informed approach to clinical decision-making.  Potential outcomes of decision aids include increased patient knowledge of available treatments, greater patient participation in decision-making, and improved health status and quality of life.  Decision aids must be updated regularly with the latest evidence.

When to Use a Decision Aid:

• when there is more than one reasonable option
• when no option has a clear advantage
• when each option has benefits and harms that patients may value differently

How Decision Aids Help:

• help patients recognize the values-sensitive nature of the decision and clarify the value they place on the benefits, harms, and scientific uncertainties.
• improve their knowledge of the options;
• have more accurate expectations of possible benefits and harms of their options
• participate more in decision making.

Shared decision making is a key component of patient-centered health care. It is a process in which clinicians and patients work together to make decisions and select tests, treatments and care plans based on clinical evidence that balances risks and expected outcomes with patient preferences and values