Decision support tools for patients
NSQHS 2 Partnering
Decision support tools bring together high-quality evidence about particular conditions so that consumers and their healthcare provider can discuss the risks and benefits of different treatment options, explore the consumer's preferences and share decisions about care.
Why use a decision support tool?
There is good evidence that using decision support tools, such as a patient decision aid, can help consumers by:
- Improving their knowledge of the options
- Helping clarify what matters most to them
- Providing more accurate expectations of possible benefits and harms of their options
- Supporting them to participate more actively in decision making.
A Cochrane review on patient decision aids provides further information on the benefits that these types of tools can provide.
The Commission's decision support tools
The Commission has developed a number of decision support tools to be used by consumers, in consultation with their healthcare provider, on antibiotic use and osteoarthritis of the knee.
Antibiotic use patient decision aids
Osteoarthritis of the knee decision support tool
This decision support tool is based on the treatment options in the Commission’s Osteoarthritis of the Knee Clinical Care Standard
