CULTURE AND PATIENT-CENTERED DECISION-MAKING AMONG DIVERSE POPULATIONS

Format Requirements: The format used in the course will involve didactic lecture and group discussions. There are no prerequisites for the course. The intended audience includes researchers, practitioners, health care administrators, and policy makers who are interested in 1) better understanding how cultural factors influence processes of patient-physician decision making and 2) learning ways to optimize the quality of dyadic communication across diverse populations.

This introductory short course will provide a broad overview of patient-provider decision making models among culturally diverse populations as well psychosocial constructs included in different models across subgroups. Consideration of cultural (e.g., individual versus family decision making) differences is extremely important in any discussion of the diffusion of SDM and attendant technologies. First, we will begin with a summary of the current research on patient-centered decision making and patient-provider communication among different cultural populations. Thereafter, we will discuss evidence-based approaches to improving the communication effectiveness between patients and physicians in varying cultural contexts.  Next, we will focus on cultural targeting and tailoring of SDM communications including patient decision aids designed to increase patient preparedness for decision making consultations.  Extensive interactive discussion of alternative approaches will provide participants with tangible tools for adapting pre-existing and/or developing new approaches to SDM in different environments.  Case examples from clinical studies and a model for real time tailoring based on contextual influences and individual cultural differences will also be introduced. 

By the end of the course, participants will:

1. Understand broader relationships between patient beliefs, preferred level of decision making involvement, communication styles, cultural and contextual factors that influence their medical decision-making;
2. Have gained new knowledge about research and analytic methodologies used to understand culture, patient-centered care, and decision-making.
3. Understand basic steps to design culturally competent decision support interventions;
4. Appreciate the challenges and successes of SDM projects in diverse cultural environments as provided both by course faculty and course participants.
5. Have internalized concrete exemplars of SDM/decision technology and cultural targeting/ tailoring to use in applying course takeaways.  
6. Have identified emergent areas that warrant future research on culture, patient centered-care, and decision-making among diverse populations.