Communication Resources
CeMPED has developed and evaluated a range of materials for cancer and palliative care patients, as well as their caregivers, to facilitate communication with health professionals. Some of these are now available on our website.
Question prompt lists
A question prompt list is a structured list of questions for the patient, or their caregiver, to ask their doctor (or another health professional) if they wish. We have developed and evaluated a variety of question prompt lists which are designed for different settings. Some of these are listed below:
1. "Asking questions can help: an aid for people seeing the palliative care team"
This booklet is organised into different topics covering many areas that people may wish to address in the palliative care setting. The development and preliminary evaluation of this question prompt list is reported in Clayton et al. British Journal of Cancer 2003; 89: 2069-77. A randomised controlled trial has been completed and has been submitted for publication.
The first attachment can be used for single sided printing. The second attachment is a print ready version to produce an A5 booklet (print double sided, flipping on short edge, then fold in the middle and staple).
(download booklet 1) (download print ready version booklet 1)
2. "So you have cancer... Questions to ask your medical or radiation oncologist"
This pamphlet includes a range of questions, including about the future, that cancer patients and their caregivers may want to ask their oncologist.
(download booklet 2)
3. "So you have cancer... Questions to ask your surgeon"
This includes a range of questions about various aspects of your cancer and treatment options, aimed particularly for patients seeing a surgeon. The development and pilot testing of this question prompt list is reported in McJannett et al. European Journal of Cancer Prevention 2003; 12: 397-405
(download booklet 3)
We hope to soon make additional communication tools available on this website. If you have any queries about the above documents please contact us on or contact Professor Phyllis Butow on .
Decision aids
A decision aid (DA) is an intervention that provides information on the clinical options and outcomes relevant to the person’s health. It is designed to help people make specific choices about different options for their healthcare by providing information on the clinical options and outcomes relevant to the person’s health. Decision aids are explicit about choices and encourage consumers to express their preference in clinical situations when there are different options. Decision aids are unbiased and non-directive and aim to support an informed choice consistent with healthcare values and preferences which may be acted on. They are designed to be adjuncts to the patient-physician interaction. Decision aids have received much support in the literature. A Cochrane Review the impact of Decision Aids has recently been updated and is now available (O’Connor et al 2003).
1. A decision aid for women aged 40 thinking about starting mammography screening
Some 40 year old women start thinking about whether they should attend mammography screening now or wait until they are 50. If you are in this situation, you might find this website helpful www.mammogram.med.usyd.edu.au/
2. Choosing whether to continue or stop mammography screening at 70
Women who have gone for mammography screening in recent years and who are now approaching 70 years of age are advised to consider both benefits and harms of continuing to be screened. But doing this may be difficult for individual women. This decision aid has been developed to help women make this decision using the best available evidence.
The decision aid has been evaluated in a randomized controlled trial, conducted jointly by researchers at the University of Sydney and BreastScreen NSW. The trial found that women who used the decision aid were better informed and more were able to make an informed choice (73.5% vs 48.8%, p<0.0001) about whether to continue or stop screening. The decision aid did not increase anxiety. To our knowledge this is the first trial of a mammography screening decision aid in the world.
For further information:
A decision aid for women aged 70 and older at their next screening mammogram (pdf)
Knowledge questions used to evaluate the Decision Aid (pdf)
3. A decision aid for women with a mildly abnormal Pap smear (pdf)
To see many of our other communication tools, please visit http://www.health.usyd.edu.au/shdg/resources/index.php
