Welcome

What are patient decision aids?

Patient decision aids are tools that help people become involved in decision making by 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 and learn about their quality?

• The A to Z Inventory allows you to search for decision aids on particular health topics.
• The Ottawa Personal Decision Guide a general decision guide that can be used for any health or social decision.

How do I develop a decision aid?

• The Development Toolkit provides information for developers and researchers interested in producing decision aids using the Ottawa Decision Support Framework.
• The Decision Aid Library Inventory (DALI) allows developers to enter and manage the informaton about their decision aids for inclusion in our inventories.

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.