Welcome to the Shared Decision Making (SDM) program newsletter. In this newsletter you will find: updates to the available patient decision aids, project updates, and useful resources and links to support decision making in practice.
Launch of new website!
Please check out our new website at
https://mghdecisionsciences.org/. We have some new features and lots of tools and resources on shared decision making, including:
New SDM online training course for clinicians: 3 CME/CEU credits
This interactive training highlights the challenges to engaging patients in shared decision making during short visits and demonstrates practical strategies to overcome those challenges. Learners are able to practice having SDM conversations in three clinical cases: lung cancer screening, treatment of depression and treatment of lumbar herniated disc. Course fee discounts are available, so contact us if you're interested.
PRIMED study: Partners primary care physicians needed to enroll in new study
Should you order a colonoscopy for a frail 83 year old who asks you for one?
Having good discussions with your patients age 76-85 about colorectal cancer screening can be challenging-particularly with older patients where the benefits of screening may be smaller and the risks higher. The PRIMED Study is testing different interventions to improve conversations with patients between the ages of 76-85 about colorectal cancer screening. We are now recruiting physicians across MGH, Partners HealthCare and Maine Medical Center to participate in this research study.
The Informed Medical Decisions
TM Program (IMDP) was established at Massachusetts General Hospital in April 2017 with generous funding from Healthwise, a non-profit. The IMDP continues the work of the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation, which was founded in 1989 with the mission to inform and amplify the patient's voice in health care decisions. The IMDP is housed within the Health Decision Sciences Center (HDSC) in the Division of General Internal Medicine and we work closely with the HDSC on many of our projects. To learn more about our projects and our current staff, please click here: https://mghdecisionsciences.org/informed-medical-decisions-program/.
We have been busy over the past year! Here are a few highlights from our current projects:
Exploring the impact of decision aids on building trust and reducing regret after orthopedic surgery funded by CRICO (Harvard's main medical liability carrier).
Validating a short questionnaire to measure patients' self-management effectiveness in sample of patients with diabetes.
Continuing to work with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to survey women facing the decision to have a repeat cesarean or a trial of labor using a certified patient decision aid.
We are involved with a VA trial testing the role of SDM in aortic aneurysm repair and another trial evaluating short video decision aids and clinician training on end-of-life care in patients with cancer.
Informed Medical Decisions is a trademark of Healthwise, Inc.
