Welcome
- 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.
New Decision Support Tools
- During the COVID-19 Pandemic,
- Should I go to live elsewhere or stay in my retirement/assisted living home?
- Should I or my family member go to live with family or stay in the long-term care or nursing home?
- A COVID-19 Decision Aid: How do I choose when to interact with people or take part in activities outside my home during the pandemic?
- For more COVID-19 related tools visit A to Z Inventory for end of life decisions
News
- December 11, 2020 – University of Southern Denmark virtual mini symposium “Improving patient and public involvement in healthcare and social decisions” featuring the inaugural seminar of Adjunct Professor Dawn Stacey as well as presentations from Dr. France Légaré at Laval University and Dr. Trudy van der Weijden at Maastricht University. Presentations available at: www.cffb.dk.
- August 2020 – The 2017 Cochrane Review of patient decision aids for people facing health treatment or screening decisions was ranked #1 in the Cochrane Library for 2019: cited in 271 articles and 69 clinical practice guidelines. More information.
- October 2019 – William L. Orovan, MD, Chair of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, announced Annette O’Connor OC MScN PhD FCAHS FRSC is one of 6 selected for induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Her pioneering work in actively engaging patients in their own treatment and supporting them in shared decision-making with physicians and caregivers, has helped make respect for patient agency an accepted part of enlightened and humane medical practice.
How can I find decision aids?
- A to Z Inventory allows you to search for decision aids on particular health topics.
- Ottawa Personal/Family Decision Guides can be used for any health or social decision.
- Decision Aid Library Inventory (DALI) allows developers to enter information about their decision aids for inclusion in our inventories.
Where are the online tutorials?
- The Ottawa Decision Support Tutorial (ODST), to help practitioners develop knowledge in shared decision making (SDM) and decision support.
- The Ottawa Patient Decision Aid Development eTraining (ODAT) to help people create a patient decision aid using the Ottawa development process.
- The Implementation Toolkit provides tools and training for incorporating decision support in practice centres.
What's the evidence?
- An international research group updates the 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.
- 20th Anniversary Update of the Ottawa Decision Support Framework.
- Several evaluation measures (e.g. Decisional Conflict Scale, Decisional Needs Assessment in Populations) are available with user manuals.
Last modified: 2022-10-18
