Ottawa Decision Support Framework (ODSF)
The Ottawa Decision Support Framework (ODSF) conceptualizes the support needed by patients, families, and their practitioners for ‘difficult’ decisions with multiple options whose features are valued differently. It guides practitioners and researchers to assess participants’ decisional needs, provide decision support interventions (clinical counselling, patient decision tools, decision coaching) and evaluate their effects on decisional outcomes. It has been used to develop and evaluate over 50 patient decision aids, measures (Decisional Conflict Scale), and training in providing decision support.
The ODSF asserts that decision support interventions that address patients’ decisional needs improve the decisional outcomes: quality of the decision and decision making process, which may favourably affect implementation of chosen option and appropriate use of health services. A 2020 review of ODSF-based studies (>100 decisions, >50,000 patients, 18 countries, 5 continents) validated decisional needs listed below and showed that ODSF-based patient decision aids were superior to usual care in improving decision quality and reducing decisional needs. Further research is needed to study downstream impacts and to evaluate decision coaching. More details about the ODSF and its evaluation are found here.
Resources that use the ODSF and References
- ODSF Decisional Needs Coding Manual: conceptual / operational definitions.
- Practitioner Decision Support Skills Training: O'Connor AM, Stacey, D, & Jacobsen MJ. Ottawa Decision Support Tutorial (ODST): Improving Practitioners' Decision Support Skills. Ottawa Hospital Research Institute: Patient Decision Aids, Web. Free log in to e-training.
- Patient Decision Aid Development Training: O'Connor A, Stacey D, Saarimaki A, et al. Ottawa Patient Decision Aid Development eTraining. Web. Free log in to e-training.
- Overview paper. Stacey D, Légaré F, Boland L, Lewis KB, Loiselle MC, Hoefel L, Garvelink M, O’Connor A. 20th Anniversary Ottawa Decision Support Framework: Part 3 Overview of Systematic Reviews and Updated Framework. Med Decis Making. 2020;40(3):379-398. doi:10.1177/0272989X20911870
- Presentation by Annette O'Connor entitled "Ottawa Decision Support Framework: Historical Perspective" (PowerPoint file with audio). Part of the "20th Anniversary Update of the Ottawa Decision Support Framework: A Workshop to Discuss Evidence, Lessons Learned, and Future Research." held during the "10th International Shared Decision Making Conference (ISDM 2019), that took place from July 7-10 2019 in Quebec City, Canada.
Last modified: 2022-10-20.
