The treatment paradigm for low-risk thyroid cancer increased in complexity following release of the 2015 American Thyroid Association Guidelines for Adults with Differentiated Thyroid Cancer. Although the intention of the guidelines were to “complement informed, shared patient-healthcare provider deliberation” when making treatment decisions, patient-clinician deliberation can fail to meet patients’ needs and may exclude available treatment.
In this research letter, Dr. Susan Pitt and Megan Saucke examined a patient-oriented intervention to support decision-making about low-risk thyroid cancer treatment. The duo held 16 stakeholder meetings between July 2016 and December 2017 to develop a 1-page treatment comparison chart and a trifold pamphlet containing a question prompt list (available at https://www.hipxchange.org/ThyroidCancerTreatmentChoice).
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