Adrian Edwards

Professor Adrian Edwards' main research interest is on risk communication, and its overlap with shared decision making and decision aids. The research has focused firstly on communication skills training for practitioners and evaluating this in practice as the practitioners consult with their own patients. Early research in this area was part of the UK 'Health in Partnership' policy research programme, which also provided an exemplar for consumer involvement in research stages from the outset to completion.

More lately a specific focus is also on development and evaluation of decision aids, principally supported by Cancer Research UK. The decision aids range from static paper-based tools to aid discussion between users and practitioners in consultations to interactive web-based aids that people would use to complement a consultation with a practitioner. Examples of these include a decision aid for men considering the prostate specific antigen test (PSA) for prostate cancer (www.prosdex.com); another for women with early breast cancer considering whether to have a mastectomy or lumpectomy procedure (www.bresdex.com); and a quit smoking decision aid (www.quit-ex.co.uk).

Further interest areas include quality improvement in primary care, including work on the International Maturity Matrix and Danish Praksis matrix, palliative medicine, and the diagnosis and epidemiology of childhood urinary tract infections.

View Adrian Edwards' researcher profile on the Cardiff University website