The Picker Institute and Gold Foundation selected our colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) as one of the 2012/2013 Challenge Grant recipients for their proposal entitled “Shared Decision Making in Medication Prescriptions: Improving Communication Skills and Professionalism for Internal Medicine Residents.” The overarching goal of the program will be to enhance the communication skills that residents need to effectively and efficiently implement shared decision making in all of their clinical interactions.
During the one year grant period, Leigh Simmons, MD, principal investigator and her team will develop and implement a training program for internal medicine residents that encourages the residents to engage in a shared decision making (SDM) process with their patients in all clinical encounters, with a specific focus on decision making regarding medications for chronic conditions. This program will be evaluated in three ways:
- Collecting feedback from residents during the training program using surveys
- Assessing baseline and post-intervention Mini-CEX scores of medication initiation visits
- Assessing chart documentation of medication initiation and documentation of the components of shared decision making
MGH has been at the forefront of SDM implementation since 2005 when they became part of the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation demonstration site project. Leigh, along with Karen Sepucha, PhD (a Co-PI on the Challenge Grant) currently lead the SDM implementation program at MGH. The team has developed an innovative model to promote SDM, which allows primary care providers to prescribe a patient decision aid through the electronic medical record (EMR).
We would like to extend our congratulations to Leigh, Karen and their team for receiving this wonderful grant opportunity that will help fill a critical gap in residency training.
