Framed Medical Decisions

• Spine Care

• Breast Cancer Care

• Primary Care

Framing Medical Decisions

A cornerstone of the Foundation’s work is decision quality. To achieve quality in medical decision-making a patient must be informed and feel confident that the decision matches the values and preferences he or she deems to be important.

To improve the quality of medical decisions, the Foundation has developed a unique approach to framing information that is needed to make informed choices in health care.

We frame medical decisions by combining two very distinct and important bodies of research.

1. We conduct systematic reviews of the science and evidence to gather the most current unbiased information on a given clinical condition.

2. We conduct focus groups to gather patient perspectives and preferences about these clinical conditions.

We then pull this information together and develop professional state-of-the-art Shared Decision-Making® programs (such as DVDs, videos, booklets, etc.) that include unbiased, up to date scientific information along with the voice of real patients explaining their decisions based on individual preferences and values.

By providing this distinctive framing of information, patients are placed at the center of the health care decisions they face, and a more effective and efficient patient/physician dialog is created.