Welcome back to The Aural Apothecary! For our first episode we bring you an exciting new format, where we’ll be diving deeper into some of the recurring themes from our first six series. The Aural Apothecary Analyses!

In this episode, we focus on statins and the importance of shared decision making in healthcare. Inspired by a recent paper in the BMJ by Sam and Brian et al, we explore their argument that guidelines should move away from population-level risk thresholds and focus more on individualised risk and patient preferences.

But how does this work in practice? We’ll explore the challenges faced by busy healthcare professionals when trying to balance shared decision making with the realities of daily practice. And, perhaps most importantly, we’ll ask: do patients actually want shared decision making?

Dr Sam Finnikin is an academic GP with an interest in shared decision making. Brian Finney is an active patient representative.

Links to some of the articles discussed:
Statins, Risk and Personalised Care BMJ article https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-076774
Lipid Lowering to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease Clinician Decision Aid https://gpevidence.org/conditions/lipids/
PEER Simplified Cardiovascular Decision Aid from Canada https://decisionaid.ca/cvd/
Disutility of Statins: Patient-Accessible Tool for Shared Decision Making in Cardiovascular Primary Prevention https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circulationaha.113.007595  

As with all of our guests, Sam and Brian share with us their Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book that has influenced their careers or life. 

You can listen to the Aural Apothecary playlist here; https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OsWj4w8sxsvuwR9zMXgn5?si=tiHXrQI7QsGtSQwPyz1KBg 

You can view the Aural Apothecary Library here;  https://litalist.com/shelf/view-bookcase?
publicId=KN6E3O

Our website is https://www.theauralapothecary.com/ 

To get in touch follow us on Twitter and Instagram @auralapothecary or email us at auralapothecarypod@gmail.com . Don’t forget to rate us and comment wherever you have got this podcast from.