Updated International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS version 5.0): modified Delphi, evidence informed consensus process

Patient decision aids (PDAs) are evidence informed tools designed to support patients in the process of making decisions about their health. The International Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS) Collaboration last updated the standards in 2013 and the evidence about patient decision aids has expanded substantially. In this article, we report on an update to IPDAS that used a modified Delphi process with two rounds of voting to reach consensus on evidence informed changes to the criteria. The 202 participants were from 26 countries, and included patients/consumers, policy makers, researchers, and clinician researchers. IPDAS 5.0 includes seven qualifying criteria (necessary to be a patient decision aid), 10 essential criteria (necessary to reduce biased decisions), and 54 enhancing criteria (additional criteria that might improve the quality of a patient decision aid). The updated standards reflect the IPDAS Collaboration’s founding goal of providing high quality patient decision aids for patients that minimise potential biases in the decisions made about potential healthcare options.