A Paradigm Shift in Options, Education, and an Online Decision Aid: 'My Life, My Dialysis Choice'.

Dialysis options education in the United States for patients tends to focus on clinical aspects of ESRD treatment and on how each option is done. The non-profit Medical Education Institute (MEI) has developed an online, patient-centered dialysis decision aid that maps six dialysis options (peritoneal dialysis, standard incenter hemodialysis, conventional home hemodialysis, short daily hemodialysis, and nocturnal hemodialysis--incenter or at home) in four categories onto 24 different lifestyle and health values. This new free, non-commercial tool allows education to start with why an individual might want to choose a particular option, rather than how, a paradigm shift that may enable more effective options education.