Shared Decision Making in Health Care

Glyn Elwyn, MD MSc FRCGP PhD is a physician-researcher, Professor and Senior Scientist at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Dartmouth College, USA. After reading the humanities he qualified in medicine in the United Kingdom. He completed a masters in medical education (MSc) and a health services research doctorate (PhD) under the guidance of Professor Richard Grol in the Netherlands. Professor Elwyn leads interdisciplinary research examining the implementation of shared decision making, user-centred design of patient decision support interventions and the integration of these into routine health care. He also holds the following positions: Honorary Research Chair at Cardiff University and Visiting Chair at the Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Netherlands. Professor Adrian Edwards is Professor in General Practice and Director of the Institute for Primary Care & Public Health at Cardiff University, Wales, UK. He is also a part-time general practitioner in Cwmbran, Gwent, South Wales and sees about 60 patients per week. He also has Visiting appointments at Aarhus and Southern Denmark Universities. Dr Rachel Thompson is an Assistant Professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Dartmouth College, USA. She conducts applied health services research that seeks to enhance provider-patient communication; facilitate shared decision-making by patients and providers; support providers to understand and respond to the needs and preferences of patients; and strengthen the patient voice in the design and evaluation of health services, clinical trials, and health care guidelines and policies. She has broader research interests in implementation science, particularly in research that seeks to increase understanding of barriers and enablers to the successful adoption of evidence-based innovations, and to successful disinvestment in futile or harmful interventions in health care.