Common Infections - Introduction

Feedback on these PDAs
We are particularly interested in users’ feedback on these oseltamivir▼ PDAs. If you are a health professional and you plan to try these PDAs with patients we’d like to be able to invite you to complete a brief on-line questionnaire, probably in November or December (depending on how the incidence of H1N1 influenza develops). If you would be interested in taking part in this, please tell us on our feedback form. We will email you the link to the online questionnaire at the appropriate time. Of course, this is not a binding commitment on your part and when we send you the link you are perfectly free not to complete the questionnaire. Thank you.

Changes/additions to materials (reviewed February 2010):

Seasonal and pandemic (H1N1) influenza
The Department of Health has issued two updated clinical management guidelines for pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza for adults and children and for women who are pregnant. For more details see MeReC Stop Press Blog 864

Although emerging observational data in the current swine influenza pandemic support the use of antivirals, the December 2009 update to a Cochrane review has raised questions about oseltamivir▼’s ability to prevent complications of seasonal influenza in otherwise healthy adults. For more details see MeReC Stop Press Blog 912. Users of our patient decision aid (PDA) relating to oseltamivir▼in otherwise healthy adults should note that it was based on data from the 2003 paper by Kaiser et al which is at the centre of the controversy regarding the Cochrane review’s findings. No other PDAs relating to oseltamivir▼in influenza are affected by the December 2009 Cochrane update.

We summarised the evidence on the use of oseltamivir▼in the treatment of seasonal influenza in children in MeReC Rapid Review blog 552 and in adults in MeReC Rapid Review blog 560. Note that the second blog should be read in conjunction with MeReC Stop Press Blog 912.

Common Infections - Introduction Patient Decision Aids

The patient decision aids on NPCi have been developed to help guide difficult decisions in which patients need to consider benefits versus risks. Decision aids prepare patients for decision making by increasing their knowledge about expected outcomes and personal values.

These documents are based on the best available evidence but are not a substitute for a discussion with a suitably skilled healthcare professional. We hope that their use in such discussions will result in better informed, patient-focussed decision making.

You can either choose to view the decision aids on the screen by clicking the 'flash' version or you can download and print a copy by clicking the 'PDF' version.

Let us know what you think about our PDAs and how you use them

We are always grateful for feedback, indeed without it most of this work would not have been possible. We should be very grateful if you would take about 5 minutes to complete a short anonymous survey on your experiences with these PDAs. Click here to take the survey.

Oseltamivir ▼ patient decision aid - At-risk children and adolescents

Oseltamivir ▼ patient decision aid - Otherwise healthy children younger than 13 years

Oseltamivir ▼ patient decision aid - At-risk adults

Oseltamivir ▼ patient decision aid - Otherwise healthy adults (13 to 64 years)

If you are interested in finding out more about how to make the best use out of patient decision aids, the following may be of interest:

• Making use of patient decision aids
• Cochrane decision aid registry
• Using decision aids in practice