Use of Visual Decision Aid for Shared Decision Making in Chest Pain

Overview

This study aims to evaluate the use of the chest pain choice (CPC) decision aid as a tool to facilitate discussion between the patient and his/her attending physician with regard to subsequent management plans. Patients aged 21 years and above with low-risk chest pain, as determined by the HEART score (HEART score 0-3), will be included. The investigator's hypothesis is that incorporating the Chest Pain Choice visual aid in shared decision making can help to reduce unnecessary admissions for low risk chest pain to the observation ward, as well as increase patient knowledge with regards to their own condition.

Chest pain is a common presenting complaint in the Emergency Department (ED). Cardiac testing in low-risk patients poses unnecessary costs and resource utilisation, which may in part be due to clinicians adopting a very-low-risk threshold for discharge without testing. The Chest Pain Choice (CPC) decision aid is a visual aid that was developed to facilitate shared decision-making between physicians and patients who present to the emergency department with chest pain, and has shown to be effective in increasing patient knowledge and decreasing the rate of admission to an observation unit for cardiac testing, among patients with chest pain who are at low risk for acute coronary syndromes. Shared decision making with the use of this visual aid has been shown in other centres to be associated with greater patient knowledge, greater patient involvement in decision making and less frequent admissions, with no increase in major adverse cardiac events (MACE) due to the intervention. The visual aid includes a brief description of what tests have been done thus far to assess the patient's risk of MACE, a graphic representation of the risk as calculated based on the HEART score, as well as the evaluation options available. The visual aid has been modified from its original form for the local context in terms of viable options for further evaluation. This study aims to assess if using a visual decision aid for shared decision making between physician and patient can safely help to decrease unnecessary admissions to the ED observation unit, as well as its impact on patient knowledge, satisfaction, as well as 30-day and 60-day Major Adverse Cardiac Events (MACE).