This course will provide participants with the fundamental components of shared decision making. Specifically, participants will learn the basics about shared decision making including why it is important, how it differs from other related clinical tools (e.g., motivational interviewing, evidence based medicine) and what shared decision making has been proven to do (and not do). We will also discuss how shared decision making occurs in practice, particularly how it can improve patient-physician discussions and how risk communication methods can improve decision making. We will briefly describe other interventions, such as decision aids, that can promote shared decision making. We will discuss implementation challenges of shared decision making and decision aids.

Objectives:
By the end of the course, participants will:

• Understand the basics of shared decision making, particularly what shared decision making is, and methods for improving the likelihood of successful shared decision making
• Understand the challenges in implementing shared decision making
• Understand an overview of patient decision aids and how they can be used in practice