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As 2017 was coming to a close, I asked a group of diverse friends and up-and-coming researchers in shared decision making (SDM) to write to their current selves a letter from the future in which they would imagine the #futureofSDM. These letters were moving and dystopic. 1/8
"Adding tools, checklists, procedures and incentives, and stimulating – perhaps without realizing – consumerism and loneliness" wrote one from the year 2028. "Don’t be seduced by the ease and safety to take the road most travelled.” #futureofSDM 2/8
"Move your shoulder over to bear some of that weight, work to reduce the burden of care” — recommended another. "Go to patient’s homes and communities. These encounters will be rich in context and will help clinicians understand how medicine could disrupt or facilitate lives" 3/8
Other accounts from 2028 were hopeful: “Today, the cruel SDM of 2018 has been rebuked. Cruel, for making the difficulty of decisionmaking, the confusion, incoherence, anxiety, incapacitation, voicelessness, and uncertainty, the fault of people and SDM a remedial approach" 4/8
From a utopian or dystopian future, these researchers challenged their present selves to correct course and offer an alternative path forward. Their recommendations were published in MDM Policy & Practice https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2381468320963781 5/8
“The disquieting future we imagined led us to reflect on next steps that we think improve the odds of a better future for SDM. Given what we ‘‘saw’’ in the future, our exploration could not conform itself with merely tinkering with SDM ‘‘as is,’’ but required new priorities 6/8
They concluded about the #futureofSDM 7/8
@JenBartonMD @MarleenKunneman @ihargraves @Annie_LeBlanc @doctorjuanpa @IsabelleScholl wrote: “ We invite the SDM research community to hold this imperfect, incomplete, yet hopeful map in their hands while walking toward 2028, amend and annotate it throughout the journey." 8/8
One day I'll publish the letter 2028-me wrote to 2017-me; its last bit read: “This made me write to you. Perhaps you can invite some great minds and hearts to get together and argue for the humanity in care.” I did, and this great group delivered! #futureofSDM /end
