Why is this study important?

Shared decision-making (SDM) is valued by patients and professionals, but the true impact of SDM interventions on patient, clinical and health service outcomes remains unclear. A current lack of agreement on the important outcomes to be measured and reported creates inconsistencies across SDM studies internationally. This hinders evidence synthesis, wastes research efforts and weakens policy influence. This study will address the inconsistency in outcome measurement and reporting.

What are we doing?

This study will develop a core outcome set (COS) to be used in all studies evaluating SDM interventions in healthcare (the COS-SDM). The research is jointly led by SDM experts Angus McNair (Bristol, UK) and Karine Toupin-April (Ottawa, Canada).

A core outcome set (COS) is a list of important outcomes agreed by patients and professionals that should always be measured and reported, as a minimum, in all studies. Using a COS helps make evidence more consistent and therefore facilitates evidence synthesis.

The COS-SDM will be developed through international consensus (online Delphi survey, in-person consensus meeting) and requires involvement from a vast range of interest holders that are affected by SDM.

How can you help?

As an expert in this field, your involvement is essential to ensure that a diverse range of individuals from communities or networks globally are represented during the COS-SDM development process. The team is inviting collaborators to join the wider study team.

Your time commitment will be minimal and the team will mainly ask you to:

• Sense-check study adverts for cultural appropriateness and correctness of language (July/September 2025, Spring 2026)
• Disseminate the online Delphi survey recruitment adverts to relevant individuals/networks (September 2025)
• Potentially identify public contributors to join a Patient/public advisory group (July 2025)

As a collaborator, you will join the wider COS-SDM study group and will be acknowledged for your contributions in collaborative authorship of any publications.

Please sign up to become a study collaborator and a study member will be in touch: https://forms.office.com/e/f0g8Van7vP