Covering patient’s perspective in case‐based critical review articles to improve shared decision making in complex cases

Abstract

Background

The patient has always been at the centre of the evidence‐based medicine model. Case‐based critical reviews, such as best‐evidence topics, however, are incomplete reflections of the evidence‐based medicine philosophy, because they fail to consider the patient's perspective. We propose a new framework, called the ‘Shared Decision Evidence Summary’ (ShaDES), where the patient's perspective on available treatment options is explicitly included.

Methods

Our framework is grounded in the critical appraisal of a clinical scenario, and the development of a clinical question, including patient characteristics, compared options and outcomes to be improved. Answers to the clinical question are informed by the literature, the evaluation of its quality and its potential usefulness to the clinical scenario. Finally, the evidence synthesis is presented to the patient to facilitate the formulation of an evidence‐informed decision about the treatment options.

Key results

Using three similar but contrasted clinical scenarios of patients with low back pain, we illustrate how considering the patient's preferences on the proposed treatment options impact the bottom line, a synthetic formulation of the answer to the focused question. ShaDES includes clinical and psychosocial components, transformed in a searchable question, with a full search strategy.

Conclusions

ShaDES is a practical framework that may facilitate clinical decisions adapted to psychological, social and other relevant non‐clinical characteristics of patients.