KEYNOTE 2 – Improving the communication of risks and benefits to patients

Link to EAHP Statements

• Section 1 – Introductory Statements and Governance: Statements – 1.1, 1.2
• Section 4 – Clinical Pharmacy: Statements – 4.1, 4.6
• Section 5 – Patient Safety and Quality Assurance: Statements – 5.1, 5.9

ACPE UAN: 0475-0000-23-015-L05-P – A knowledge-based activity 

Abstract

Choosing a treatment, deciding whether or not to have a surgical procedure or interrupting a treatment are all scenarios which can be influenced by how we present risks and benefits to patients.

A clear example is the recent case of the Astra Zeneca Covid vaccination, which was linked to an increased risk of developing thromboembolism. This risk was poorly communicated in many cases, leading some people to fear vaccination. Communicating risks and benefits is not straightforward; it is not simply about presenting the numbers you have to hand. It requires a series of strategies to ensure that these numbers have context, are only as precise as they deserve to be, are balanced, and are understandable.

The Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, alongside other institutions, has researched closely with clinicians and patients to understand how risks and benefits are currently communicated in diverse health contexts, such as transplants, cancer therapies and vaccination. The Winton Centre’s team has developed strategies and tools to improve these practices to ensure that patients are supported to make shared treatment decisions based on information they can understand, as well as taking into account their own values and preferences and attitude towards risk.

This keynote will address the issues around the conventional ‘persuasive’ approach so often taken in risk communication to ‘maximise compliance’, and the importance of moving towards an informative style which clearly communicates risks and benefits. The keynote will cover crucial strategies that pharmacists can put in practice any time they communicate risks and benefits of treatments to patients. Some of these strategies are: never using just relative risks but adding absolute risks too; considering the format of how numerical information is presented;  providing balanced information where consistent framing is essential; giving context to each situation; and, the use of visual aids and decision support tools. These points will be explained through examples on risks around medicines as well as other everyday examples of life. The audience will obtain practical advice for the next time they communicate risks and benefits, whether they talk about pain medicines, antibiotics or chemotherapy.

Learning objectives

After the session the participant should be able to:

• Recognise the concept of risk in the health context
• Distinguish between persuading and informing in communication to patients, and the ethical considerations of each of them
• Identify common mistakes in the media and medical practice when communicating health risks
• Apply strategies to communicate risks and benefits in the most understandable way possible
• Develop a more critical and holistic view of what good risk communication requires beyond the numbers 

Educational need addressed

This keynote addresses the strategies needed by pharmacists to communicate risks and benefits of medical treatments in a precise, balanced and understandable way to promote free informed decisions from patients.

Keywords

Clinical decision support; communication; counselling; cultural diversity; education; evidence-based medicine; health literacy; inter-professional collaborative practice; statistics