What are decision support tools?

Cancer decision support tools include patient decision aids, risk calculators and other educational interventions to help patients and providers work together in making health care decisions across the cancer spectrum.    

These tools can support shared decision making and goal concordant care by proving a framework for discussing options and tradeoffs, considering what is important to patients and making decisions that most closely align with the values and preferences of patients.

Examples of our decision support tools can be found here

What we do

The Decision Science Core Facility provides the following expertise: 

• Decision support expertise across the cancer care spectrum

• Development of state-of-the science patient decision support tools for cancer care 

• Comparative effectiveness and implementation research on decision support tools in cancer

Examples of tools developed by the core

The Decision Support Lab creates a range of tools to support patients and healthcare providers in medical decision making. The examples below reflect work done in specific cancers such as breast cancer as well as cross-cutting themes such as financial toxicity and user centered design of decision support tools. 

Breast Cancer Treatment Decision Tool

Citation:
Karuturi MS, Giordano SH, Hoover DS, Volk RJ, Housten AJ. Exploring and supporting older women's chemotherapy decision-making in early-stage breast cancer. J Geriatr Oncol. 2022;13(2):170-5. Epub 2021/12/28. doi: 10.1016/j.jgo.2021.11.018. PubMed PMID: 34955445; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9045544.

Major Findings:
Decision making needs identified in this research have been used by the core to develop a patient decision aid about treatment for early-stage breast cancer for women age 65 and older.

Decision Science Core's Role:
The core also developed the interview protocol for formative work on decision-making needs of women with early-stage breast cancer that was published as part of Dr. Meghan Karuturi’s NIH-funded career development award.

ENRICH project

Citation:
Corrigan KL, Fu S, Chen YS, Kaiser K, Roth M, Peterson SK, et al. Financial toxicity impact on younger versus older adults with cancer in the setting of care delivery. Cancer. 2022;128(13):2455-62. Epub 2022/04/14. doi: 10.1002/cncr.34220. PubMed PMID: 35417565; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9177670.

Major Findings:
This financial toxicity measure was recently used in a sample of working-age adults. It was found that young adults with cancer are at greater risk of financial hardship than older adults.

Decision Science Core's Role:
The core provided graphic design support for the financial toxicity measure developed for Dr. Grace Smith’s ENRICH project.

Evidence for User-Centered Design

Citation:
Witteman HO, Maki KG, Vaisson G, Finderup J, Lewis KB, Dahl Steffensen K, et al. Systematic Development of Patient Decision Aids: An Update from the IPDAS Collaboration. Med Decis Making. 2021;41(7):736-54. Epub 2021/06/22. doi: 10.1177/0272989X211014163. PubMed PMID: 34148384; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8664088.

Major Findings:
This update described new developments in the use of user-centered design to ensure patient decision aids met the needs of patients, caregivers and clinicians and to reduce the potential for harmful bias to patients.

Decision Science Core's Role:
The core assisted in updating the evidence about the use of user-centered design of patient decision aids for the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) Collaboration.

International Patient Decision Aids Standards

Citation:
Stacey D, Volk RJ, IPDAS Evidence Update Leads. The International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) Collaboration: Evidence Update 2.0. Med Decis Making. 2021;41(7):729-33. Epub 2021/08/22. doi: 10.1177/0272989X211035681. PubMed PMID: 34416841; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8474333.

Major Findings:
An international effort updated the evidence that informed the current standards from IPDAS for patient decision aid content, development, and evaluation. These standards are used by the Decision Science Core for the patient decision aids it produces.

Decision Science Core's Role:
The core helped to coordinate the effort to update the body of evidence behind IPDAS standards.

Awards

Hermes Creative Gold Award - Creative Design of a Healthcare Website
"Medullary Thyroid Cancer," Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (2023)

Hermes Creative Platinum Award - Creative Design of a Healthcare Website
"Maintenance Therapy: A Decision Aid for Women," Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (2022)

Hermes Creative Gold Award - Creative Design of a Healthcare Website
"Breast Cancer Treatment Decision Tool," Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (2022)

Hermes Creative Gold Award - Creative Design of a Healthcare Video Production
″Promoting Informed Decisions about Breast Cancer Preventive Therapy", Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (2018)

Hermes Creative Gold Award - Creative Design of a Healthcare Website
“Pathways: a fertility preservation decision aid for women with cancer” Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (2017)

Hermes Creative Award Platinum - Creative Design of a Healthcare Video Production
Patient decision aid "Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Story of Choices", Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (2013)

Bronze Telly Award
Outstanding video production, patient decision aid "Lung Cancer Screening: Is it right for me?" (2012)

Bronze Telly Award
Outstanding video production, patient decision aid "Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Story of Choices" (2012)