午夜剧场

Our lives are a continuous series of decisions. Over the past three years, influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been many times when I hesitated over choices even after the easing of behavioral restrictions on the Shinanomachi Campus—such as whether to hold meetings in person or online, or whether or not to go on a trip.

In medical care as well, people often hesitate over choices such as which treatment method to receive or whether or not to undergo a certain treatment (or test). Any choice has its pros and cons and involves uncertainty. Decisions that affect one's lifestyle or life are particularly difficult, and doctors and healthcare professionals also want to make these decisions together with their patients. A breast cancer patient I met through my research activities told me, "Since getting sick, it's been a continuous series of decision-making. Once you open one door, the next door appears."

I want to improve the quality of decision-making for patients facing difficult medical decisions, and I am working on research regarding the development of decision guides as support tools and the effectiveness of providing them. The aim of a decision guide is to facilitate the process of sharing, discussing, and deciding based on the accurate medical information held by doctors and healthcare professionals and the values held by the patient. During the development process, many patients cooperated, saying, "I have benefited from previous patients myself. I want the next patient to receive even better medical care."

In Europe and the United States, decision guides are called "Decision aids." Researchers have established an international organization called the International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) Collaboration, which maintains international standards to guarantee the quality of decision guides. These international standards are meticulously examined based on previous research and include several items to reduce information bias. Conversely, this means it is also easy to intentionally present information to lead someone to choose a certain method. Since the judgment of what is best varies by patient, emphasis is placed on creating them from a neutral standpoint and involving the end-users—patients and healthcare professionals—in the creation process.

As Shared Decision Making (SDM)—the process where patients and healthcare professionals decide together—becomes increasingly important, I believe that decision guides play a vital role in helping patients participate in medical care proactively and in a way that is true to themselves. To advance research in this field, I believe it is important for citizens, patients, healthcare professionals, and researchers to share the information and values they each possess as equal partners and to work together while learning from one another.