Brief Description
Translates the theory from the science of decision making into clinically useful tools and principles.
Learn More about the Book
Decision making is a key activity, perhaps the most important activity, in the practice of healthcare. Although physicians acquire a great deal of knowledge and specialised skills during their training and through their practice, it is in the exercise of clinical judgement and its application to individual patients that the outstanding physician is distinguished. This has become even more relevant as patients become increasingly welcomed as partners in a shared decision making process. This book translates the research and theory from the science of decision making into clinically useful tools and principles that can be applied by clinicians in the field. It considers issues of patient goals, uncertainty, judgement, choice, development of new information, and family and social concerns in healthcare. It helps to demystify decision theory by emphasizing concepts and clinical cases over mathematics and computation.
About the Authors
Alan Schwartz, PhD, is a decision psychologist in the Departments of Medical Education and Pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he teaches decision making, leadership, and quantitative methods. His research focuses on both patient and physician decision making, including evidence-based medicine, risk perception, and the impact of life goals on utility assessment. He has received the Outstanding Paper by a Young Investigator Award from the Society for Medical Decision Making, the Ray E. Helfer Award for Innovation in Pediatric Education from the Ambulatory Pediatrics Association, and the Junior Faculty Research Award from the Midwest Society for General Internal Medicine. Dr Schwartz serves on the Board of Trustees of the Society for Medical Decision Making, and coordinates the Society's 'Teaching Medical Decision Making' interest group. He also serves on the Executive Board of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. He has taught leadership and decision making in Brazil and Pakistan, as well as on-line to students throughout the world, and twice received his University's peer-reviewed teaching award.
George Bergus is Professor and Associate Head for Education at the Department of Family Medicine, University of Iowa.
Review Quotes
1. "A thoughtful exposition of the breadth of the medical decision issues to which the analyses of decision theory have often been applied. The authors' approach to medical decision making ensures that readers from different backgrounds understand the concepts by expressing them in words, elaborated with concrete numerical examples and graphs, instead of expecting symbolic formulas to communicate....This book has the potential for teaching practicing physicians to make good decisions and to make decisions well."
--Doody's Review Service
2. "This book successfully sensitizes the reader to important components of patients decisions. The author provides several questionnaires and visual tools that could realistically be adapted to busy clinical practices. As promised, the authors offer succinct explanations of some of the more technical aspects of outcomes valuation and prediction, and formal decision analysis. Of particular value, and unlike similar texts, this book offers many nonquantitative ways to assess patients values and preferences."
--Annals of Internal Medicine"
