Risk forecasting in major surgery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Risk forecasting in major surgery: Investigating shared decision making for high-risk surgical patients and doctors
IRAS ID
269666
Contact name
Magda Osman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Mary University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Each year in the NHS, more than 250,000 high-risk patients have major surgery. These patients are typically older with chronic disease. One in three high-risk patients choosing surgery will experience serious medical complications leading to long-term decline in health and quality of life. Awareness of these long-term risks is poor amongst both doctors and patients. Shared decision-making (SDM) is suggested as a means of improving the way in which patients are helped to make informed decisions about their treatment.
The aim of this study is to describe and explore differences in how high-risk patients and their doctors make decisions about surgery. This will provide important information about how we might improve SDM.
We will recruit 65 lay participants, adults over 60 years of age with at least one chronic medical condition, and 65 doctors in selected NHS hospitals forming part of Barts Health NHS Trust.
Participants will be presented with two study tasks:
1) Estimation task: participants will be presented with one of three hypothetical situations (osteoarthritis, bowel cancer or coronary artery disease) in which surgical treatment and a non-surgical alternative will be described. Participants will be asked to estimate the likelihood of achieving a satisfactory outcome, and the perceived risks of treatment, for various future time-points (1 month, 3 months 6 months, 12 months) from their own patients' or doctors' perspective.
2) This will be followed by a perspective-taking task where the participants perform the same estimation task, but this time swapping roles i.e. the lay-participants adopt the role of doctor and the doctor that of a patient.Results from this study will give numerical descriptions of the different understanding of the risks and benefits of major surgery between patients and the doctors who advise them.
REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1956
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jan 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion