Following & Making Contact
Use Twitter to follow @medinfoshare | You can also contact Dr. Gardner directly via Twitter. Click here to get started. Medication InfoShare was created by Dr. David Gardner as a resource for people interested in sharing health information, with a particular focus on mental health and medications. People in mind include health professionals, people with lived experience with mental illness, and their family and friends. Various tools, publications, and relevant links have been assembled to assist knowledge curators (i.e. physicians, pharmacists, and other health care providers) to support informed decision making.
Informed decision making: your role
The foundation of informed decision-making is the dialogue between the patient and their health care provider(s). By considering the best available evidence, as well as the patient’s individual circumstances, preferences, and values, informed decision making enlists the patient as a leading member of the health care team. As a health care provider: be a knowledge curator! Inform the patient about the condition and treatment options using the best available evidence and offer clinical guidance
As a patient: be aware of the nature and risks associated with the condition and treatments, and, fitting your comfort, actively participate in the decision making process
Is your health provider a knowledge curator?
A curator is responsible for the acquisition, care and interpretation of objects within an institution. In the health care system, health providers must curate health information by sorting through and critically appraising existing works as well as new studies as they become available. While being aware of the body of health information, health care providers who are knowledge curators can then display specific pieces that are most appropriate for a given patient and situation. Furthermore, knowledge curators help interpret the information and present it to the patient to facilitate the informed decision making process. A good curator let’s the individual make the final determination of what to make of the information. For more on how to curate knowledge for everyone’s health, visit Dr. Mike Evans’ website.
Who is Medication InfoShare?
David M. Gardner
Dr. David Gardner is a professor with the Department of Psychiatry and College of Pharmacy at Dalhousie University and is also a consulting pharmacist with the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program (NSEPP) in Halifax, NS, Canada. Recently named the 2012 CPhA Canadian Pharmacist of the Year, Dr. Gardner balances academia, patient care and advocacy in the field of mental health. Focusing on evidence-based clinical practice, pharmacotherapy of various psychiatric conditions, enhancing the role of the community pharmacist as a mental health care provider, and collaborative practice, Dr. Gardner is a clinician, active researcher and award-winning teacher.