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A new lab set up with a $500,000 donation from Bell Canada will offer “decision aids” to help patients and their families who have to make tough choices about their health. The Bell Patient Decision Support Laboratory – the first of its kind in Canada – is headed by Dr. Annette O’Connor, a School of Nursing professor.
The lab, located at the Ottawa Health Research Institute, will act as the world’s clearinghouse for decision aids. O’Connor leads an international team of specialists who catalogue and evaluate decision aids, and are setting international standards on how they should be developed.
Presented as worksheets, the decision aids will benefit patients and health-care practitioners alike.“Beyond the latest medical information, decision aids help patients look at a difficult decision in the context of their values, their lifestyle and their beliefs,” O’Connor said. “They don’t provide advice, nor do they replace professional counselling. They do improve knowledge of options and skills in participating in shared, tough decisions. As a result, professionals spend less time presenting facts and more time listening and discussing the personal issues and values of the patient and family.”
There are over 500 decision aids in the database and over 150 are now accessible for public use on the lab’s Web site at www.ohri.ca/decisionaid.
O’Connor began her work by researching ways to help patients and their families make difficult and emotional decisions and have them feel more confident about their choice. This research led to the development of several decision aids.
“As an example, a surgeon offers two women the options of mastectomy or lumpectomy plus radiation to treat their early breast cancer. Both options are equal in survival benefit, but one woman prefers a mastectomy because she most values relieving her worry about cancer returning in that breast, whereas the other prefers a lumpectomy plus radiation because she most values preserving her natural breast. There are no wrong answers here.”
Bell Patient Decision Support Laboratory
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