Study protocol

Translating shared decision-making into health care clinical practices: Proof of concepts

France Légaré¹ , Glyn Elwyn² , Martin Fishbein³ , Pierre Frémont¹ , Dominick Frosch⁴ , Marie-Pierre Gagnon¹ , David A Kenny⁵ , Michel Labrecque¹ , Dawn Stacey⁶ , Sylvie St-Jacques¹ and Trudy van der Weijden⁷

¹Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec, Hôpital St-François D'Assise, Unité de recherche évaluative, 10 rue de l'Espinay, Québec, Québec, G1L 3L5, Canada

²Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Neuadd Meirionnydd, Heath Park CF 14 4YS, UK

³Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

⁴UCLA Med-GIM & HSR, BOX 951736, 911 Broxton, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1736, USA

⁵Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road Unit 1020 Storrs, CT 06269-1020, USA

⁶School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, 451 Smyth, Room RGN 3247A Ottawa, ON K1H 8M5, Canada

⁷Department of General Practice/School of Public Health and Primary Care Caphri, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

author email corresponding author email

Implementation Science 2008, 3:2doi:10.1186/1748-5908-3-2

Published:	14 January 2008

Abstract

Background

There is considerable interest today in shared decision-making (SDM), defined as a decision-making process jointly shared by patients and their health care provider. However, the data show that SDM has not been broadly adopted yet. Consequently, the main goal of this proposal is to bring together the resources and the expertise needed to develop an interdisciplinary and international research team on the implementation of SDM in clinical practice using a theory-based dyadic perspective.

Methods

Participants include researchers from Canada, US, UK, and Netherlands, representing medicine, nursing, psychology, community health and epidemiology. In order to develop a collaborative research network that takes advantage of the expertise of the team members, the following research activities are planned: 1) establish networking and on-going communication through internet-based forum, conference calls, and a bi-weekly e-bulletin; 2) hold a two-day workshop with two key experts (one in theoretical underpinnings of behavioral change, and a second in dyadic data analysis), and invite all investigators to present their views on the challenges related to the implementation of SDM in clinical practices; 3) conduct a secondary analyses of existing dyadic datasets to ensure that discussion among team members is grounded in empirical data; 4) build capacity with involvement of graduate students in the workshop and online forum; and 5) elaborate a position paper and an international multi-site study protocol.

Discussion

This study protocol aims to inform researchers, educators, and clinicians interested in improving their understanding of effective strategies to implement shared decision-making in clinical practice using a theory-based dyadic perspective.