A free public lecture in Sydney tomorrow from a visiting international speaker Professor France Légaré (pictured left) will focus on the important topic of shared decision making in health care. This is part of a new stream of work being done by the Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Health Care on this issue – as outlined in more detail below by Justine Marshall and Heather Buchan from the Commission….
In recognition of the importance of patient centred care and patient engagement, there is increasing interest worldwide in methods that can be used to promote shared decision making in health care.
Shared decision making describes a process where patients and clinicians work in partnership to integrate the patient’s values, goals and concerns with the best available evidence about benefits, risks and uncertainties of treatment, in order to make appropriate health care decisions.
There is a growing body of evidence showing shared decision making practices contribute to improved patient satisfaction and adherence to treatment plans. It is also a strategy to reduce unwarranted variation in clinical practice.
Support for shared decision making at a policy level is strong inCanada, theUnited States,Germany, and in theUnited Kingdom. In the UK, the NHS Choices web site, along with the Health Foundation’s MAGIC (Making good decisions in collaboration) program and the NHS Right Care program, have seen greater attention paid to research on the benefits of shared decision making, the desire for patients to be active and informed participants in decisions about their health care, and the barriers, opportunities and methods of implementing shared decision making practices across the health system.
At presentAustraliadoes not have a coordinated national approach to shared decision making. A great volume of consumer information material, some of a purely educational nature and some designed to support shared decision making, is being produced by both public and private organisations. Several Australian research units are conducting work on shared decision making, but information about the implementation of practices is sparse.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) is beginning a stream of work focussing on shared decision making and is hosting Professor France Légaré, an international expert in this field. Professor Légaré is the Chair of Implementation of Shared Decision Making in Primary Care at the Université Laval Québec.
Professor Légaré will give a free public lecture in Sydneyon Wednesday 16 October 2013 at 5:00pm, titled “Shared Decision Making: Building on research to help it happen in practice”. The lecture is being held at the Mercure Hotel, 818-820 George Street, Haymarket. Places are still available. To RSVP, please email ACSQHCevents@safetyandquality.gov.au
The Commission is also keen to hear from anyone with an implementation or research interest in shared decision making in health care in Australia. If this sounds like you, please send an email to mail@safetyandquality.gov.au with “Shared decision making” in the subject line.
