BACKGROUND Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) are commonly used for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD). Patients often lack an understanding of the potential risks and benefits of ESAs, despite government mandated education on this topic. Decision aids are tools commonly used to discuss important information in health care settin...

BACKGROUND Although a model for shared decision-making is important for patient-centered care, decisional conflict can emerge when patients participate in the decision-making. A decision aid is proposed to provide information and to involve patients more comfortably in the decision-making process. We aimed to determine whether a decision aid helps patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) expe...

PURPOSE Many clinicians lack resources to engage patients in shared decision making for prostate cancer screening. We sought to evaluate whether previsit educational decision aids facilitate shared decision making. METHODS This randomized controlled study compared a Web-based and a paper-based decision aid with no previsit education. Men aged 50 to 70 years undergoing a health maintenance exa...

Decision aids have much in common with other types of automation. For example, they vary in the level of automation that they offer — from data integration, through expert systems that generate decision options, to associate systems that take action unless the user overrides. In principle, “autonomous” systems can be developed that evaluate, choose and act without the user’s knowledge. Automati...

OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of a computerised decision aid in patients with atrial fibrillation making decisions on whether to take warfarin or aspirin therapy. DESIGN Two-armed open exploratory randomised controlled trial. SETTING Two research clinics deriving participants from general practices in Northeast England. PARTICIPANTS 109 patients with atrial fibrillation aged over 60...

Considering a worldwide tendency, air transports are growing very fast and many changes have taken place in planning, management and decision making process. Given the complexity of airport operation, the best use of existing capacity is the key driver of efficiency and productivity. This paper deals with the evaluation framework for the ground access at airports, by using a set of mode choice ...

BACKGROUND When invited for the first time at age 50, most women in Germany have to decide whether they wish to participate in the German mammography screening programme. For ethical reasons, screening decisions should be informed choices, but this is rarely the case with mammography screening. Decision aids are interventions with the potential to support informed choice by improving the follow...