The involvement of patients in decisions about their care is essential to help effectively manage long-term conditions and achieve the best possible patient outcome. ‘Shared decision making’ (SDM) ensures that individuals are supported, by their healthcare partners, to make decisions about their care or treatment that are right for them.

SDM is included in the NHS Constitution, and AbbVie, working in partnership with the wider healthcare community, continues to raise the profile of patient involvement.

In consultation with patient organisations, we produced a policy report highlighting three pillars of opportunity to improve patient involvement in decisions about their care:

• Enabling empowered conversations through support for both healthcare professionals and patients
• Achieving buy-in through increased levels of support, visibility and understanding of SDM amongst senior NHS leadership
• Utilising the opportunity to re-design patient pathways and processes during the NHS’s recovery from the pandemic to embed SDM.

You can access a copy of the report here. 

Building on this work, AbbVie has also produced the below documents:

• A Practical Guide: Implementing Shared Decision Making in an Evolving Healthcare System
• Tackling Health Inequalities through Shared Decision Making (SDM): A Policy Position Paper

If you would like a copy of the above documents or would like further information on AbbVie’s work in this area, please contact [email protected]