Tuesday, April 29, 2025
4/29/2025
Multidisciplinary Surgical Decision Making for Older, High Risk Patients - Project Summary Current surgical consent practices are inadequate for older adults undergoing high-risk procedures. A true understanding of the long-term health complications of an operation is difficult to achieve in one conversation. To address this issue, our institution implemented a multidisciplinary preoperative decision-making conference in 2016. To create a more patient-centric discussion, we started including patients in these meetings in January 2022. Our pilot data has led us to the conclusion that multidisciplinary discussions for high-risk surgeries in older adults should be the paradigm for decision-making in these complex situations. This GEMSSTAR proposal is designed to understand the impact of including older adult patients and caregiver(s) in a multidisciplinary preoperative discussion and to use a shared decision-making framework to optimize the meeting structure. The aims of this proposal are to: 1)Identify communication practices of healthcare providers during multidisciplinary high-risk surgical decision- making discussions that facilitate or limit patient/caregiver engagement. 2)Determine the impact of older adult and caregiver(s) participation in multidisciplinary group discussions on their high-risk surgical decision 3)Identify critical components to ensure healthcare provider engagement in multidisciplinary high-risk discussions with patients. With the support and expertise of the Denver VA HSR&D, we will be able to clarify the benefits of these discussions and refine the structure model for multidisciplinary surgical decision-making conferences. Successful completion of this project will allow Dr Jones to become an expert in surgical decision-making to apply for a VA Career Development Award and further disseminate this model of care.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).