Catalyzing Patient-Centered Decisions through Modern Learning Design: A Path for Progress

Why this matters now.
Meta-analyses show clinician continuing education (CE) reliably changes practice, yet U.S. patients still receive only about 55 percent of recommended care,3 and the quality of shared decisions varies widely—especially in underserved communities.1 Classic Moore-based activities boost competence but rarely carry knowledge across the last mile into patient-centered decisions (PCDs), where evidence meets each person’s goals, capacity, and context. As patient-facing initiatives expand, the Alliance community is uniquely positioned to elevate clinician-focused CE—applying behavioral, decision, and implementation science so that every learning minute more effectively enables patient-centered care within the clinician encounter.

What we propose.
This workshop introduces the Patient-Centered Decision-Enabling (PCDE) Framework—an evidence-informed approach shaped by established insights from behavioral science, decision quality research, and patient-centered care. Aligned with core CE design principles, the PCDE Framework supports clinicians in translating new evidence into real-world, preference-sensitive care decisions. PCDE:

1. Refines learning objectives to support reflection on the patient relevance of emerging evidence—an approach aligned with adult learning theory and shared decision-making models.

2. Integrates preference-sensitive case scenarios and behavioral design elements into CE activities that clinicians already engage with for licensure, MOC, or institutional requirements—without adding burden.

3. Expands evaluation strategies to include brief, validated patient-reported measures of decision quality, offering actionable data that can complement existing outcomes frameworks and feed into system-level dashboards.

Grounded in published literature on clinician behavior change, shared decision-making, and continuing education outcomes, the PCDE Framework is structured to address widely recognized challenges across the CE ecosystem. It offers practical, scalable enhancements that support measurable progress for each key stakeholder group.

• Clinicians:
Barrier: Limited time, tools, and confidence to integrate patient goals and social context into guideline-based care.
PCDE Solution: Offers concise reflection prompts and preference-sensitive case scenarios that can be embedded within required CE activities.

• Patients & Care Partners:
Barrier: Variable involvement in care decisions, high decisional conflict, and trust gaps.
PCDE Solution: Normalizes structured preference elicitation, a technique that improves perceived relevance and builds shared understanding—key outcomes that can be captured with validated tools.

• CE Providers:
Barrier: Difficulty demonstrating outcomes at Moore Levels 5–7 without introducing cost, risk, or compliance challenges.
PCDE Solution: Introduces an ACCME-compliant “PCDE Canvas” that enables CE teams to measure patient-centeredness directly and meaningfully.

• Health Systems & QI Teams:
Barrier: Limited access to actionable metrics reflecting patient-centered care.
PCDE Solution: Generates real-world shared-decision data that aligns with existing metrics like HCAHPS communication domains and equity dashboards.

• Commercial Supporters:
Barrier: Need for unbiased education that advances quality care without promotional content.
PCDE Solution: Offers needs-based, behaviorally informed modules that connect with real-world quality improvement goals.

Workshop Flow
This 60-minute workshop walks participants through the “what, why, and how” of PCDE, culminating in a hands-on redesign sprint.

• 0–10 min:
The Bigger Picture – Sets the stage by showing how enabling patient-centered decision-making directly supports system goals related to equity and quality.

• 10–15 min:
Making the Case – Explores the business case and system-level rationale for integrating PCDE into CE design.

• 15–25 min:
Innovation in Practice – Demonstrates the PCDE Canvas in action, sharing a real-world use case and outcomes.

• 25–50 min:
Design Sprint – Teams work to retrofit a legacy CE module using the PCDE Canvas, each assigned a unique clinician persona to ensure real-world complexity is addressed.

• 50–58 min:
Metrics Mapping – Share-outs from teams, with guidance on linking PCDE-informed learning to Moore Levels 5–7.

• 58–60 min:
Commitment Poll & Resources – Participants document their intent to use the PCDE Canvas and receive resources for further testing and implementation.

Key Takeaway: Participants leave with a draft measurement plan and a fully outlined PCDE Canvas design ready for pilot use within their own organization.