Developing an Innovative Decision Support Tool for Pediatric Neuromuscular Scoliosis

Neuromuscular scoliosis (NMS) can result in severe disability for children. Non-operative management including bracing and physical therapy minimally slows scoliosis progression, but operative management with posterior spinal fusion (PSF) carries high risks of morbidity and mortality in part due to the multiple comorbid conditions seen in children with NMS. Decisions like PSF that have no clear best treatment option are best served by shared decision making (SDM). SDM is a collaborative process where patients, parents, and providers share their knowledge, preferences, and values to reach treatment plan agreement. Our prior qualitative study creating a framework of SDM for children with multiple comorbid conditions like children with NMS found that parents face immense decision related uncertainty that often goes unacknowledged by providers and that parents and providers struggle with identifying and communicating family preferences and values that are important for treatment decision making. Our prior work has identified optimal methods to communicate uncertainty and identified the preferences and values parents of children with NMS have when it comes to treatment decision making for NMS. This study will pilot test a decision support tool that contains these elements.