At the heart of patient-centered care are patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs), allowing the children’s and their families’ voices to be heard in surgery. Several graduate students are conducting major projects in this area.

• Patient-reported outcome measures in pediatric surgery – A systematic review

This little-explored area in surgery comprises a broad spectrum of projects aiming to improve and personalize the communication between children, their families, and their surgical care providers. Some of the areas which we are exploring together at CommiSurLab include:

• Shared decision making in surgery: A meta-analysis of existing literature (completed)
• Shared decision making in surgery: A scoping review of the literature (completed)
• Scoping review of risk communication preferences in pediatric surgery (completed)
• Use of a risk communication survey to prioritize family-valued outcomes and communication preferences for children undergoing outpatient surgical procedures (completed)

• Scoping review of precision communication concepts and definitions (completed)

• Understanding the effectiveness of consent processes and conversations in pediatric surgery: A systematic-scoping review (completed)
• Consenting video evaluation study (completed)

• Scoping review of trust concepts in pediatric surgery (completed)
• Mixed-methods study of trust in pediatric surgery

We have started exploring this essential emerging area of research, through several studies exploring the effect of gender on the access to care and surgical outcomes of children in LMICs.

• Access to care and outcomes of children with surgical conditions in Africa
• Access to care and outcomes of children with surgical conditions in Asia and the Middle East