How Many Experts Can You Fit In a Decision Aid?

Osteosarcoma is a form of bone cancer that often occurs around the knee joint during rapid bone growth in childhood and adolescence. In addition to chemotherapy, standard treatment includes surgery to remove the tumor. There are three surgical options – amputation, rotationplasty, limb salvage surgery - each of which has different risks and benefits as well as very different physical appearances. The risk for recurrence is similar for each option.

Patients and parents need to engage in making surgical decisions with their providers but often feel unsure about their role and overwhelmed with information. Some families understand there were options and regret not being involved in a decision made by their provider. In oncology, there are optimal times for shared decision-making with patients, families, and physicians but shared decision-making doesn’t always occur. In cases, such as these, a decision aid is needed. Surgical decision-making can be a complex process with life-long limitations; this type of decision aid requires input from diverse experts in evidence-based medicine, patient-reported outcomes, and decision science.

This symposium draws from the interdisciplinary members of the Osteosarcoma Decision Aid Medical Advisory Team (O-DAMAT). The presentation maximizes the expertise of physicians and researchers in medicine and the social sciences as well as expert patients who will give short talks about what makes a successful collaboration of people with very different skill sets. Challenges will be explored as well as methods to address these challenges in a moderated interactive discussion with audience members. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding for how to engage and manage stakeholders in the development of tools to address knowledge gaps for shared decision-making.