Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2020
Teaching Conflicts of Interest and Shared Decision-Making to Improve Risk Communication: a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interventions for improving medical students' interpersonal communication in medical consultations.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Can positive expectations help to improve the learning of risk literacy? A cluster-randomized study in undergraduate medical students.BMC medical education · 2022Trial
- Development and acceptability testing of a tracheostomy decision support video for parents.PEC innovation · 2025Article
- Assessing the effect of educational intervention on pharmaceutical promotion: a follow-up study among medical students from Pakistan.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Teaching Shared Decision Making to Undergraduate Medical Students.Rambam Maimonides medical journal · 2021Article
- Teaching clinicians shared decision making and risk communication online: an evaluation study.BMJ evidence-based medicine · 2021Article
- Analysis of risk communication teaching in psychosocial and other medical departments.Medical education online · 2020Observational
- The feasibility and effectiveness of a blended-learning course for detecting and avoiding bias in medical data: a pilot study.BMC medical education · 2020Article
- Quantity and quality of conflict of interest policies at German medical schools: a cross-sectional study and survey.BMJ open · 2020Article
- A follow-up study on the effects of an educational intervention against pharmaceutical promotion.PloS one · 2020Article
- What and how are students taught about communicating risks to patients? Analysis of a medical curriculum.PloS one · 2020Observational
- Development, implementation, and evaluation of a curriculum for medical students on conflicts of interest and communicating risk.GMS journal for medical education · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRisk communication is a core aspect of a physician's work and a fundamental prerequisite for successful shared decision-making. However, many physicians are not able to adequately communicate risks to patients due to a lack of understanding of statistics as well as inadequate management of conflicts of interest (COI).
objectiveTo evaluate the effects of an integrated curriculum encompassing COI and shared decision-making on the participants' risk communication competence, that is, their competence to advise patients on the benefits and harms of diagnostic or therapeutic interventions.
designA rater-blind randomized controlled trial with a 30 (± 1)-week follow-up conducted from October 2016 to June 2017 at two German academic medical centers.
participantsSixty-three medical students in their fourth or fifth year.
interventionsParticipants received either a newly developed 15-h curriculum or a course manual adapted from teaching as usual. MAIN MEASURES: Primary outcome: change in risk communication performance in a video-observed structured clinical examination (VOSCE). KEY
resultsParticipants were 25.7 years old on average (SD 3.6); 73% (46/63) were female. Increase in risk communication performance was significantly higher in the intervention group with post-intervention Cohen's d of 2.35 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.62 to 3.01, p < 0.01) and of 1.83 (CI 1.13 to 2.47, p < 0.01) 30 (± 1) weeks later. Secondary outcomes with the exception of frequency of interactions with the pharmaceutical industry also showed relevant improvements in the intervention as compared with the control group (d between 0.91 and 2.04 (p < 0.001)).
conclusionsOur results show that an integrated curriculum encompassing COI and risk communication leads to a large and sustainable increase in risk communication performance. We interpret the large effect sizes to be a result of the integration of topics that are usually taught separately, leading to a more effective organization of knowledge.
trial registrationThe trial is registered in the International Clinical Trials Registry with the trial number DRKS00010890.
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