Friday, August 8, 2008

Shared-decision-making interventions

Last time I posted I promised that I would talk more in depth about models that help health professionals implement shared-decision-making (SDM). The evidence suggests that such a model would be useful since health professionals find it difficult to implement SDM even when they feel it would positively impact patient outcomes.1

I was hoping to find something like the PLISSIT model.* PLISSIT outlines the steps that a health professional can take to address the issue of sexuality with cancer patients, and one of the steps involves addressing their information needs:

P = permission (follow above link for explanation)

LI = limited information i.e. addressing the patient's information needs, conducting the reference interview, either providing information, discussing information that has already been found, or directing the patient to trustworthy information on the topic. Here's where a librarian or an information service might come in handy.

SS = Specific suggestion (follow above link for explanation)
IT = Intensive therapy (follow above link for explanation)

Unfortunately, besides LI, these steps are not particularly relevant to SDM, so the model is not transferable.

I have since had the chance to take a closer look at the literature and found exactly just such a model: The Ottawa Decision Support Framework (ODSF). Hurray! I love when I find exactly what I'm looking for. It also comes with a handy implementation toolkit, and evidence to support that it reduces decisional conflict between patients and physicians.2

Unfortunately the model does not provide a clear point at which information needs are addressed, making it more difficult to use it in conjunction with an information service. At the very least however, such a service could support the process by providing on-demand access to decision aids, which are known to
help patients participate in decision making, leading to informed choices that are consistent with their values.3
I also found a useful scale for measuring patient involvement,4 which seems like an important step to take before attempting to facilitate or improve implementation of SDM.



*
As mentioned in my last post, I came across this model recently while researching the question of how to help HPs bring up sexuality issues with gynecologic cancer patients.

1 Gravel K, Légaré F, Graham ID. Barriers and facilitators to implementing shared decision-making in clinical practice: a systematic review of health professionals' perceptions. Implementation Science 2006; 1:16

2 Légaré F, O’Connor AM, Graham ID, Wells GA, Tremblay S. Impact of the Ottawa Decision Support Framework on the Agreement and the Difference between Patients’ and Physicians’ Decisional Conflict. Med Decis Making 2006; 26:373–390

3 O’Connor AM, Wennberg JE, Legare F, Llewellyn-Thomas HA, Moulton BW, Sepucha KR, Sodano AG, King JS. Toward The ‘Tipping Point’: Decision Aids And Informed Patient Choice. Health Affairs 2007;26(3): 716–725

4 G Elwyn, A Edwards, M Wensing, K Hood, C Atwell, R Grol. Shared decision making: developing the OPTION scale for measuring patient involvement. Qual Saf Health Care 2003;12:93–99

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