Welcome

What are patient decision aids?

Patient decision aids are tools that help people become involved in decision making by making explicit the decision that needs to be made, providing information about the options and outcomes, and by clarifying personal values. They are designed to complement, rather than replace, counseling from a health practitioner.

How can I find decision aids?

• The A to Z Inventory allows you to search for decision aids on particular health topics.
• The Ottawa Personal/Family Decision Guides are general decision guides that can be used for any health or social decision.
• The Decision Aid Library Inventory (DALI) allows developers to enter and manage the informaton about their decision aids for inclusion in our inventories.

New! Ottawa Patient Decision Aid Development eTraining (ODAT) an online, self-guided tutorial that takes people through the Ottawa patient decision aid development process.

What's the evidence?

• An international research group maintains an ongoing systematic review of trials of patient decision aids for treatment or screening decisions using Cochrane review methods.
• The International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) Collaboration established a set of internationally approved criteria for determining the quality of patient decision aids.
• The Ottawa Decision Support Framework: Update, Gaps and Research Priorities workshop May 2010 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

• The Implementation Toolkit provides tools and training for incorporating decision support in practice centres.
• Training with the Ottawa Decision Support Tutorial (ODST), an online tutorial to help practitioners develop skills in providing decision support.