The overall objectives of the proposed work are: (1) to prepare the principal investigator for an independent career in patient-oriented clinical research, specifically in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and (2) to develop an effective tool to help patients with Crohn's disease make difficult healthcare decisions. The principal investigator spent a year as the IBD fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital studying patient care and clinical research techniques for patients with IBD. Dr. Siegel is now the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and has been focused on research involving decision making for IBD treatments. The candidate's immediate goals are to obtain formal training towards a Master of Science Degree in clinical/health services research, continue involvement in research regarding patient decision making in IBD, and to build the IBD Center at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Long-term career goals include becoming a leader in clinical research in IBD, applying for further funding to study patient decision making (RO1 or equivalent), and developing the Dartmouth-Hitchcock IBD Center as the premier site studying patient decision making in IBD. Dartmouth Medical School's Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences is one of the few institutions in the world studying shared decision making. The environment at Dartmouth is ideal for Dr. Siegel to study and learn with world's experts and bring the concepts of shared decision making to the field of IBD. The proposed project is to develop a decision aid for patients with moderately active Crohn's disease. The hypothesis is that a properly developed decision aid will allow patients to make more informed and higher quality medical decisions. Systematic surveys will be performed to ascertain the needs of patients and physicians, and through a balanced presentation of the medical literature, a decision aid will be developed and pilot tested. Relevance - As powerful new treatments for Crohn's disease are developed, we need to properly educate our patients regarding the benefit and harms of therapy. A decision aid will provide patients with clear and accurate information and allow them to choose treatments that match with their personal values.
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