About us
Decision coaching is non-directive support delivered by a healthcare provider to help patients prepare to actively participate in making a health decision. Given that training in decision coaching skills is not part of usual healthcare providers’ educational programs, there is training in decision coaching and protocols to guide people in providing decision coaching. Our SIG is focused on supporting research and building capacity in the use of decision coaching as an intervention to facilitate shared decision making.
For any questions about this special interest group or if you wish to join, please email the co-chairs Birte Berger-Höger, Jeanette Finderup and Dawn Stacey.
Upcoming Activities
Decision Coaching: what, where, why?
Tuesday April 29 at 8am EST, 2pm Europe
Presenter: Dawn Stacey PhD, FRSC, FCAHS, FAAN, FCAN, Distinguished Professor, University of Ottawa
All ISDM members and their colleagues are invited to come learn about decision coaching, the evidence, and how it is being used.
Meeting in April: https://aarhusuniversity.zoom.us/j/69114739982
- Jull J, Kopke S, †Smith M, Carley M, Finderup J, Rahn AC, Boland L, Dunn S, Dwyer AA, Kasper J, Kienlin SM, Légaré F, Lewis KB, †Lyddiatt A, Rutherford C, Zhao J, Rader T, Graham ID, Stacey D. (2021). Decision coaching for people making healthcare decisions Cochrane Database Syst Rev; 11(11):CD013385. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013385.pub2. (†patient partners).
- Rahn AC, Jull J, Boland L, Finderup J, Loiselle MC, †Smith M, Kopke S, Stacey D. (2021). Guidance and /or decision coaching with patient decision aids: Scoping reviews to inform the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS).Med Decis Making; 41(7):938-953. doi: 10.1177/0272989X21997330.
- Zhao J, Jull J, Finderup J, Smith M, Kienlin SM, Rahn, AC, Dunn S, Aoki Y, Brown L, Harvey G, Stacey D. (2022). Understanding how and under what circumstances decision coaching works for people making healthcare decisions: a realist review. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. 22(1):265. doi: 10.1186/s12911-022-02007-0.
- More information available at: Decision Coaching – Patient Decision Aids – Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (ohri.ca)
- Coming soon: Steckelberg, A; Berger-Höger, B (Ed.) (2024): Decision Coaching. Förderung von informierten Entscheidungen durch Pflegefachpersonen. [Decision Coaching. Supporting Informed Decisions by Nurse Professionals] 1st Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. ISBN: 978-3-17-043669-5.
Dawn Stacey (Canada)
Affiliation: Distinguished Professor, University of Ottawa and Senior Scientist, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada
Decision Coaching Projects:
Dawn Stacey RN, PhD, FAAN, FRSC, FCAHS, FCAN established the conceptual and empirical evidence on decision coaching during her doctoral studies (2001-2005). Then she supervised the first study to evaluate decision coaching in pediatrics (2015). As part of the International Patient Decision Aid Standards Collaboration, she led the updated evidence synthesis on decision coaching as the primary and then senior author (2013; 2021). She published the first conceptual model on decision coach facilitated shared decision making (2008) and lead the update of the Ottawa Decision Support Framework that includes decision coaching (2020).
Birte Berger-Höger (Germany)
Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Bremen University, Germany
Decision Coaching Projects:
Birte Berger-Höger is an Assistant professor for Nursing Science at the University of Bremen, Germany. Her research focuses on decision support interventions in oncology. She developed and evaluated a nurse-led decision coaching intervention combined with a patient decision aid for women with ductal carcinoma. This intervention was subsequently adapted and evaluated for various other oncological situations, e.g. for women with BRCA1/2 gene mutations or patients with rare cancers. She is one of the editors of a German decision coaching teaching book which will be published soon.
Yumi Aoki (Japan)
Affiliation: Associate Professor, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo, Japan
Decision Coaching Projects:
Yumi Aoki is an Associate Professor of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing at the Graduate School of Nursing Science, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo, Japan. Her research primarily focuses on SDM in psychiatry and the development and implementation of patient decision aids for individuals with mental health conditions. She developed an interprofessional SDM program for mood disorders called the “Seven-Day SDM Program” in an outpatient psychiatric service in Tokyo. Within the program, she took on the role of a decision coach and also evaluated its intervention effects (2019).
Jeanette Finderup (Denmark)
Affiliation: Associate Professor, Aarhus University and Clinical Nurse Specialist, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
Decision Coaching Projects:
Jeanette Finderup works both clinically and academically with decision coaching. She has developed and evaluated three interventions for people with kidney failure all including decision coaching. The interventions are implemented and part of usual practice at 11 out of 14 hospitals in Denmark.
Simone Kienlin (Norway)
Affiliation: Special advisor for Shared decision making at the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, Department of Medicine and Healthcare and Ph.D. Candidate at the E-Health, Integrative care and Innovation Center, University Hospital of North Norway.
Decision Coaching Projects:
Kienlin is leading a project at The South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority to increase the uptake of SDM guided by a multi-faced implementation strategy. A part of this project is the development and implementation of the modularised meta-curriculum for training healthcare professionals in SDM “Ready for SDM”. One module is focused on training for decision coaches.
Krystina Lewis (Canada)
Affiliation: Associate Professor, University of Ottawa, Canada
Decision Coaching Projects:
Krystina Lewis is an Associate professor in the School of Nursing. Her research focuses on decision support interventions in cardiology. She developed and evaluated a patient decision aid with nurse-led decision coaching intervention for individuals at risk of sudden cardiac death facing implantable cardioverter-defibrillator replacement. She is a co-author on the Cochrane Review for decision coaching.
Kathy Kastner (Canada)
Affiliation: University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM)Practice Based Research Network (PBRN), Laval University Research Center, Stanford University Medicine X program
Decision Coaching Projects:
Kathy is patient partner on shared decision-making, end of life planning and health literacy. Both participant and presenter at conferences on Public Health and Palliative Care, International Conference on Shared Decision-Making and Health Literacy, she also facilitates workshops with University of Toronto’s Center for Advancing Collaborative Health and Education (CACHE). An author, ‘Death Kills’; original research,The Whiteboard Experiment, published in a peer reviewed journal; TEDxTalk: Exit Laughing; Keynote at Stanford University: Sweat the Small Stuff; YouTube series, ’10-second MedSchool’, on medication administration; BestEndings.com on end of life issues from a patient’s point of view.
Mirjam Garvelink (Netherlands)
Affiliation: Senior researcher and advisor in Shared Decision-Making in the department of Value Based Health Care (VBHC), at the St Antonius Hospital in the Netherlands
Decision Coaching Projects:
Mirjam is a senior researcher and advisor in Shared Decision-Making in the department of Value Based Health Care (VBHC), at the St Antonius Hospital in the Netherlands. This is a top clinical hospital that is part of a collaboration initiative with 7 hospitals to implement VBHC. She is trained as a Health Scientist, did a phd in Medical Decision-Making (Leiden University Medical Center), followed by a postdoc in Implementation of Shared Decision Making (Université Laval). Mirjam is convinced that decision coaching can play a major role in the empowerment of patients for SDM. Preliminary findings from a project on decision coaching by an independent nurse before the consultation with a specialist, show promising results of coaching on the exchange of information and values in the consultation, leading to increased levels of SDM.
Yulia Gendler (Israel)
Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Nursing Department, Ariel University, Israel
Decision Coaching Projects:
Yulia Gendler is an Assistant Professor in the Nursing Department at Ariel University, Israel. Her research focuses on decision-support interventions in pediatric settings, emphasizing culturally sensitive approaches in Israel’s diverse population. She leads decision-coaching projects on ADHD treatment, currently being evaluated in a four-arm randomized controlled trial, and HPV vaccination, aimed at improving communication between healthcare providers, parents, and adolescents.
Jessica Persson Kylén (Sweden)
Affiliation: PhD-candidate, Department of Health Sciences, University West, Sweden and Project Manager, Centre for Gerodontology, Public Dental Service, Region Västra Götaland, Sweden
Decision Coaching Projects:
Jessica Persson Kylén is a PhD candidate at the Department of Health Sciences at University West in Sweden. She also lectures in the Oral Health Programme for registered dental hygienists at Karlstad University and serves as a project manager at the Centre for Gerodontology, Public Dental Service, Region Västra Götaland. Her research primarily focuses on change, learning, and collaboration among older adults, oral health care professionals, and general healthcare professionals, aiming to integrate oral health into broader healthcare processes. Given the coexistence of oral diseases and general non-communicable diseases, future studies could explore decision coaching across various organizations, involving for example older adults, dental and municipal care professionals.
Kristian Damgaard Lyng (Denmark)
Affiliation:
Decision Coaching Projects:
I’m a Danish PhD-student working with shared decision-making and shoulder pain, with a special focus on developing a complex intervention for general practice. I focus on implementation science and understanding systems theory to increase the likelihood of positive outcome for my intervention. Within my PhD I have developed a decision aid and thus I have gained an increased interest in Decision Coaching as well.
Sean White (UK)
Affiliation: Dietitian, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK.
Decision Coaching Projects:
Sean is a dietitian from Sheffield in the UK, with an academic and clinical interest in how people with motor neuron disease (MND) are supported to make decisions about their care and treatment options. He has recently completed an NIHR funded doctoral fellowship that used multiple methods, including case study methodology, to understand how people with MND are supported by the multidisciplinary team to make decisions about gastrostomy feeding tube placement. Sean is aiming to take his doctoral findings forward through developing a complex decision support intervention with a decision coaching component to support people with MND to engage in timely discussions about their care options including addressing the emotional response that was found to influence engagement and involvement in decision-making discussions.
Pia Keinicke Fabricius (Denmark)
Affiliation: Project leader (PhD), Department of Ear-Nose-Throat Surgery, Zealand University Hospital (Køge), Denmark.
Decision Coaching Projects:
Pia is an RN and holds a PhD from the medical faculty at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In the PhD, she developed a co-designed medication conversation guide to support SDM with older poly-medicated patients in the medical ED context. Since April 2023, she has worked as a project leader in an EU Interreg-supported project, “innosleep,” in her project, she works closely with stakeholders in developing and implementing a patient decision aid for obstructive sleep apnea patients. During her work on decision support tools, she became interested in decision coaching. Now, she is planning a decision-coaching intervention in a nurse-led outpatient clinic for sleep apnea.
Lea Lund (Denmark)
Affiliation: Center for Shared Decision Making, Vejle Hospital, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, Denmark, Associate Professor, Department of Regional Health Research, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Decision Coaching Projects:
Lea Lund is a senior researcher at the Centre for Shared Decision Making, Denmark and Associate professor in competence development at the University of Southern Denmark. As a senior researcher with a background and PhD in educational research, she conduct research on professional competence development when it comes to enabling health professionals to perform Shared Decision Making. She also do research in educational leadership, professional development, curriculum and learning, and she leads the center’s research group and supervise doctoral students at the center.
Bettina Mølri Knudsen (Denmark)
Affiliation: PhD student, National Coordinator of Danish SDM Network, Center for Shared Decision Making, Lillebaelt Hospital – University Hospital of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Decision Coaching Projects:
Bettina Mølri Knudsen is a PhD student at the Center for Shared Decision Making in Denmark. Her research focuses on the implementation and evaluation of patient decision aids, particularly in terms of their timing and format. She is also deeply interested in patient and public involvement in shared decision-making (SDM) research and is leading a robust project on approaches to enhance this involvement. Additionally, her broader interests include improving SDM in healthcare and decision coaching.
Kristina Suorsa-Johnson (US)
Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah School of Medicine
Decision Coaching Projects:
Kristina Suorsa-Johnson, PhD is an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine and is in the Division of Pediatric Behavioral Health. Her specific clinical interests are in the delivery of psychoeducational and behavioral health services to children and adults with differences of sex development/variations in sex characteristics (DSD/VSC), and their families. Her research interests include understanding and supporting, via education and decision support resources, patient and family decision making within DSD/VSC.
Janet Jull (Canada)
Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Carleton University
Decision Coaching Projects:
Dr. Janet Jull develops and evaluates shared decision-making tools to promote person-centered care, focusing on health care systems. Dr. Jull collaborates with diverse groups, including urban Indigenous, Inuit, First Nations, and Métis communities, with an emphasis on decision coaching in the work with community partners.
Michael Sanatani (Canada)
Affiliation: Medical Oncologist, Associate Professor of Oncology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
Decision Coaching Projects:
Dr. Michael Sanatani is studying the integration of a decision coach in preference-sensitive decision-making in medical oncology, and exploring the patient experience of decision-making. He is interested in discovering pragmatic ways of creating space and opportunities for a more deliberate decision-making process within routine oncology care. As a medical educator, he is also working on understanding and optimizing shared-decision making skills training in the context of the clinical learning environment and the trainee-consultant supervisory relationship.
Lia Schilling (Germany)
Affiliation: PhD Candidate, Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Decision Coaching Projects:
Lia Schilling focuses on decision support interventions for cancer patients. As part of a project to improve the care of patients with rare cancer diseases, she has been involved in Decision Coaching and the training of Decision Coaches. Additionally, during her PhD, she conducted interviews with Decision Coaches in Germany to analyze their experiences and perspectives.
Hannah Young (UK)
Affiliation: Specialist Research Physiotherapist, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Honorary Associate Professor, University of Leicester, NIHR Advanced Research Fellow
Decision Coaching Projects:
Dr Hannah Young is a specialist research physiotherapist of 20 years’ experience, at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Leicester. Hannah is currently undertaking a NIHR advanced fellowship that aims to develop and evaluate a shared decision-making approach to support people living with multiple long-term conditions and frailty, and their informal carers, with 24- hour movement behaviours (sleep, physical activity and reduced sitting time).