Shared decision making ensures that individuals are supported to make decisions that are right for them. It is a collaborative process through which a clinician helps patients decide on their treatment.
The conversation brings together:
- The clinician's expertise, such as treatment options, evidence, risks and benefits
- What the patient knows best: their preferences, personal circumstances, goals, values and beliefs.
All treatment decisions should be a shared decision between patient and clinician.
Patient Choice
The NHS vision for Patient Choice by 2020 is that:
- All patients are aware of the choices available to them, particularly where these are legal rights and have the information they need to make meaningful choices,
- All GPs/referrers discuss the different treatment options available to patients, include them in shared decision making, and offer choices to patients,
- All providers make good quality, up to date information about their services available and accept all appropriate patient referrals in line with the NHS Standard Contract,
- All commissioners assess how well the choice is working within their CCG and put improvement plans in place to address areas that need strengthening,
- All opportunities to extend the operation of choice beyond existing standards are explored and implemented.
There are pros and cons to each type of surgical procedure and valve replacement, depending on age and lifestyle. Therefore, you should discuss which valve and surgery are most suitable for you with your physicians.
The importance of an MDT
A multidisciplinary team (MDT), also referred to as a "structural heart team" or simply an "MDT", is a team of health professionals who are experts in heart valve disease and who all have different skill sets.
MDTs play a significant role in ensuring that a patient's care is patient-centred. Patient-centred care is a fully personalised and individual approach to health care. This means considering the patient's wishes, along with all of the other factors surrounding that person's life and circumstances that affect their health and wellbeing. An MDT is key to patient-centred care as it involves making the best choices for the patient's treatment pathway.
Heart Valve Disease patient, Ian Wintrip, said: "Initially, the plan was for open-heart surgery, which I was pretty nervous about. I'm pretty tough, and I love life, but the prospect of having your chest opened is scary. People think that because I'm a dentist by trade, I'd be used to stuff like this, but I'm used to standing over the chair, not sitting in it!! Dr Jim Hall gave me great confidence despite my fears and concerns, and I felt I was in the best hands at James Cook University Hospital. Eventually, we made a shared decision that I would have a TAVI instead."
Read Ian Wintrip's Heart Valve Disease Story here: heartvalvevoice.com/news/ne....
