Data access has been approved for a research project aiming to create a personalized risk/benefit assessment tool for patients with stable coronary artery disease, that will help to incorporate both clinician and patient preferences in their treatment.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in Canada and can significantly impair quality-of-life through the symptoms and functional limitations of angina. Heart disease and stroke cost the Canadian economy more than $20.9 billion every year in physician services, hospital costs, lost wages and decreased productivity.
“For patients with stable CAD there are three common treatment options”, says research project lead, Dr. Karin Humphries of St Paul’s Hospital, and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. “However, evidence suggests that patients’ and physicians’ preferences differ with respect to treatment options and prioritization of outcomes. For instance, many patients are more concerned with their health-related quality of life than their survival, which is a common concern for clinicians. Failure to ascertain and include patient-preferred goals and outcomes in treatment decision-making represents a significant gap in clinical research and practice.”
Dr. Humphries believes that better strategies are needed to address these discrepancies between current evidence and practice, as well as the lack of consideration of patients’ preferences. “Novel shared decision-making (SDM) tools that engage patients and communicate individualized risks and benefits of treatment, not only support a patients’ right to make informed decisions regarding their treatment, but they could also lead to more realistic expectations regarding disease course and treatment, improved adherence to therapy, and enhanced patient satisfaction,” she says.
The overarching objective of this study, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is to develop an evidence-based, individualized risk/benefit assessment tool that is integrated into routine clinical care and supports SDM between patients and physicians during treatment selection for stable CAD.
PopData will link 4 data sets from the BC Ministry of Health, BC Vital Statistics Agency and Cardiac Services BC for the project.
