Abstract
BackgroundThe ability to do online searches for health information has led to concerns that patients find the results confusing and that they often lead to expectations for treatments that have little supportive evidence. At the same time, the science of summarizing research evidence has advanced to the point where it is increasingly possible to quantify treatment tradeoffs and to describe the balance between harms and benefits for individual patients.DiscussionTrustworthy clinical practice guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations to health care practitioners based on assessments of study-level averages. In an effort to customize the use of evidence and ensure that choices are consistent with their personal preferences, tools for patients have been developed. Gradually, there is recognition that the audience for high quality evidence is much wider than merely health care professionals – and that there is a case to be made for creating tools that translate existing evidence into tools to help patients and clinicians work together to decide next steps.SummaryWe observe two processes occurring: first, is the recognition that decision making in healthcare requires collaboration and deliberation, and second, to achieve this, we need tools designed to customize care at the level of individuals.
Highlights
The ability to do online searches for health information has led to concerns that patients find the results confusing and that they often lead to expectations for treatments that have little supportive evidence
Summary: We observe two processes occurring: first, is the recognition that decision making in healthcare requires collaboration and deliberation, and second, to achieve this, we need tools designed to customize care at the level of individuals
Evidence synthesis will become more efficient, automated, and will increase the speed at which tools can be populated with risk data that can be used at the level of individuals
Summary
Towards customized care tools Whilst we can confidently make the argument for the adoption of evidence-based tools to help produce customized care for individuals, there are many steps required before this vision becomes a reality. There are sources that provide patients and their families with information about illness and treatment experience Bringing these elements together will be a challenge, and there will be a need to have versions that can be viewed or used independently as well as versions that are brief enough for use in clinical encounters. What ‘matters most to patients’ should guide the presentation of evidence, in terms of organizing the content and conveying the probabilities of treatment effects, harms, and burden in ways that communicate risk most effectively Short tools such as Issue Cards [12], Option Grids [13], and SHARE-IT tools [22] have been designed to facilitate collaboration and deliberation in clinical encounters [23]. In collaboration with many others, to systematize evidence synthesis to facilitate the production of trustworthy tools, for multiple purposes, that can be widely shared (Fig. 1)
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