BOSTON, Mass. – July 20, 2010 – Health Dialog today highlighted the important role of informed patient choice as part of the ongoing national discussion about improving health care. David Wennberg, MD, MPH, Chief Science Officer at Health Dialog, has spearheaded the company’s approach to patient support – shared decision making – designed to strengthen the conversation between patients and physicians about treatment decisions. (To read Dr. Wennberg’s recent paper, “Power to the Patient” please visit http://www.healthdialog.com/go/sdm-paper)
Shared decision making is about helping patients and their doctors arrive at a treatment decision that most closely reflects the patients’ own preferences and takes into consideration all potential treatment options and associated risks and benefits. In shared decision making, patients speak with their doctors and view a multimedia decision aid that presents the medical evidence for each treatment choice as well as the experiences of other patients with those treatments. The approach has been proven effective in improving quality of care and enhancing patients' satisfaction with their outcomes. Whether an individual chooses a complex procedure such as surgery or a less aggressive option such as medication or watchful waiting, shared decision making is about patient choice, and about ensuring that patients have access to the information and clinical support they need to understand their medical choices.
“Patients’ active participation in the treatment decisions is critical to improving quality of care and our health care system as a whole,” said Dr. Wennberg. “Shared decision making puts the patient and their preferences at the center of the medical conversation; and it is equally valuable whether the patient is receiving care through an integrated delivery system, a consumer-driven health plan, Medicare/Medicaid, or a traditional HMO or PPO.”
Today, patients are faced with a large number of decisions each year. Roughly one-third of medical decisions are about surgeries, tests, treatments and procedures that have two or more treatment options.1 These options often have very different trade-offs in terms of likely benefits and risks and the associated decisions are not always easy or straightforward.
82 percent of adults over the age of 40 have made a decision about having surgery, undergoing a screening test or tasking a new medication in the past two years. 54 percent of these adults have faced two or more of these types of medical decisions.2 Unfortunately, patients sometimes do not understand they have a decision to make, and if they do, often do not have the information they need to make a choice that reflects their own values and preferences.
Health Dialog has created a broad library of medical decision aids that has collectively garnered over 40 awards from prestigious competitions. These decision aids are currently available to over 20 million health plan members as part of Health Dialog's programs. To view one of Health Dialog’s decision aids, “Getting the Healthcare that’s Right for You” video please visit http://www.healthdialog.com/go/sdm-video.
About Health Dialog:
Health Dialog Services Corporation is a leading provider of health care analytics and decision support. The firm is a private, wholly-owned subsidiary of Bupa, a global provider of health care services. Health Dialog helps healthcare payers improve health care quality while reducing overall costs. Company offerings include health coaching for medical decisions, chronic conditions, and wellness; population analytic solutions; and consulting services. Health Dialog helps individuals participate in their own health care decisions, develop more effective relationships with their physicians, and live healthier, happier lives. For more information please visit www.healthdialog.com.
1 Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Dartmouth Medical School. Dartmouth Atlas Project Topic Brief: Preference-Sensitive Care 6. 2005. URL: http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/topics/preference_sensitive.pdf.
2 M Couper. Medical Decisions in America: The Patient Perspective. Presented at FIMDM conference. Washington, DC. Feb 2009