As part of the world’s largest distribution of video-based decision aids for any single organization, Group Health implemented video-based “decision aids” for men with two common prostate conditions. Here’s what happened: Rates of elective surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia and rates of active treatment for localized prostate cancer declined over six months. Yet the total cost of health care for those patients didn’t fall significantly, according Dr. David Arterburn in a new American Journal of Managed Care article: “Decision Aids for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and Prostate Cancer.”
Read the news release: Implementing decision aids affects care decisions in urology.
Principal Collaborative Biostatistician
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute