The Winton Centre was commissioned by NHS England to produce a set of decision support tools, designed to help patients make decisions about their treatment alongside their health professionals.

Working with design company Luna9, the Winton Centre team went through an iterative process, talking to patients, patient support groups, members of the public and clinicians on each topic, refining the format. The resulting tools are designed to be printed out (as most patients wanted them in hard copy), and written on. Some are designed to be used alongside a clinician and then taken home after a consultation, whilst others patients wanted available before an appointment.

All the tools conform to the international IPDAS standards as well as the NICE guidelines for decision support tools. They show patients their treatment options (including doing nothing), what each option might mean practically, the risks and benefits of each (quantified as much as possible), help patient think about what is important to them, and each has room at the back for patients to note down questions and information about what might happen next.

Eight of the tools are downloadable now from the NHS Personalised Care website: https://www.england.nhs.uk/shared-decision-making/decision-support-tools/

These complement the training courses that the Winton Centre has already made in shared decision making, along with colleagues at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in the UK. These are all available through the Winton Centre's site: https://moodle.wintoncentre.uk or through the NHS' site eLearning for Healthcare:

Access the Primary Care version of the course here: https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/Component/Details/543925

Access the Perioperative Care version of the course here: https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/Component/Details/543859

Access the Ophthalmology version of the course here: https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/Component/Details/604821

Access the Obstetrics and Gynaecology version of the course here: https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/Component/Details/603796

Access the Plastic Surgery version of the course here: https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/Component/Details/608413