The Effective Health Care (EHC) Program, powered by the Evidence-Based Practice Centers was created from the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. The EHC Program improves the quality of healthcare by providing the best available evidence on the benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and healthcare services and by helping healthcare professionals, patients, policymakers, and healthcare systems make informed healthcare decisions.
Shared decision-making empowers patients to make decisions about their own healthcare. The clinician counsels the patient, but the patient determines what is best for themselves. This leads to higher rates of patient compliance, helps patients understand the benefits and harms of any treatment, and coordinates with the focus of evidence-based practice on patient-centered healthcare.
Decision Aids are patient-based tools developed to help patients make medical decisions about their healthcare, like whether or not to have surgery, schedule a medical test, begin a treatment, or use a pharmaceutical. These tools can be sheets of paper, pamphlets, interactive online webforms, videos, audiotapes, or workbooks.
Decision aids should be written in plain language and can include neutral (unbiased) presentations of various treatments and the benefits and risks of each. They are not general education materials or persuasive documents advocating a particular treatment.