Helping patients decide: Aberdeen team to develop an innovative decision-aid tool
Pharmacy Research UK (PRUK) is delighted to announce the second recipient of our 2017 project grants as part of our £200k investment in major grants. Professor Mandy Ryan and colleagues from the University of Aberdeen has been awarded £100k to develop a person-centred discrete choice experiment (DCE) to promote shared decision making in the patient-pharmacist interaction over two years.
The aim of this project is to employ the DCE methodology to develop and pilot a personalised computer-based Decision Aid Tool (DAT) to facilitate Shared Decision Making (SDM) in a pharmacist-led consultation. This methodology involves asking patients to compare two or more treatment alternatives and state their preference in a series of hypothetical scenarios. Through respondent’s repeated choices, one can mathematically work out information on the relative importance of treatment attributes, how patients trade between treatment attributes, and the overall treatment benefit to patients. The study will be done in the context of managing chronic pain as this is a condition where pharmacists are increasingly involved. As patients often have varying criteria for success in pain management (for example pain reduction, medication side effects, physical activity, ability to maintain normal routines) SDM is crucial.
The project will include a review of the literature followed by qualitative interviews with patients, pharmacists and doctors to confirm what is important in the delivery of chronic pain management; the development of the DAT; and a pilot randomized trial to access the acceptability of the DAT.
Dr Rachel Joynes, Executive Director at PRUK said:
“We are delighted to fund Prof Ryan and her team at the University of Aberdeen. Pharmacists are increasingly involved in the management of chronic pain and there are clear benefits to involving the patient in decisions around their care. We hope this research will result in a tool that will benefit all pharmacists in the management of chronic pain.”
Professor Mandy Ryan, Lead Researcher, said:
“We are delighted with the funding which will allow us to develop an innovative tool to help patients with chronic pain make treatment decisions. This project will build upon our existing strong multidisciplinary research team with doctors, pharmacists and health economists to help improve patient-pharmacist interaction in primary care and ultimately the decision quality for patients with chronic pain.”
See detail of the project at: http://pharmacyresearchuk.org/dat/
For further information please email: Practice.Research@rpharms.com
Notes to Editors:
PRUK is the principle funder of pharmacy research in the UK. Founded as a result of a merger in 2012 of two previous research funding charities, PRUK has a broad programme of research in place. PRUK funds both research projects and individual bursaries to improve skills across the pharmacy sector. Registered charity number 1148335.
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