Choices: An Interactive Decision Spport Program for Breast Cancer Treatment
Abstract
When patients choose a treatment plan in a manner consistent with their values, preferences, and individual decision making style, they generally have better outcomes in part, because involvement also improves the quality of therapeutic decisions. Greater involvement may also optimize the decision-making process by which treatments are chosen thereby reducing untoward decision outcomes such as disappointment, regret, or depression. Using a multimedia CD-ROM format, Choices provides an innovative approach to personalized decision making by incorporating unique features that currently are not available in existing programs. The ultimate objective of Choices is to help patients make effective decisions under stressful and threatening circumstances. Specifically, Choices has the following unique features in contrast to existing programs: (1) the program is designed to be user-friendly and comfortable for women of all ages and education levels, (2) an assessment of the decision maker's personal decision style is used to set the structure of the program, (3) the program considers the cognitive demands of the decision making in this health care context, (4) it goes beyond eliciting personal values and preferences by providing solutions to common decision failures, and (5) provides an opportunity for pre-decision rehearsal of different options to avoid unexpected decision outcomes or negative emotional responses.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA387996
Entities
People
- Penny F. Pierce
Organizations
- University of Michigan