Medical Decision Making

Medical Decision Making provides clinicians with a powerful framework for helping patients make decisions that increase the likelihood that they will have the outcomes that are most consistent with their preferences. This new edition provides a thorough understanding of the key decision making infrastructure of clinical practice and explains the principles of medical decision making both for individual patients and the wider health care arena. It shows how to make the best clinical decisions based on the available evidence and how to use clinical guidelines and decision support systems in electronic medical records to shape practice guidelines and policies. Medical Decision Making is a valuable resource for all experienced and learning clinicians who wish to fully understand and apply decision modelling, enhance their practice and improve patient outcomes. There is little doubt that in the future many clinical analyses will be based on the methods described in Medical Decision Making, and the book provides a basis for a critical appraisal of such policies. - Jerome P. Kassirer M.D., Distinguished Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, US and Visiting Professor, Stanford Medical School, US

Medical Decision Making provides clinicians with apowerful framework for helping patients make decisions thatincrease the likelihood that they will have the outcomes that aremost consistent with their preferences.This new edition provides a thorough understanding of the keydecision making infrastructure of clinical practice and explainsthe principles of medical decision making both for individualpatients and the wider health care arena. It shows how to make thebest clinical decisions based on the available evidence and how touse clinical guidelines and decision support systems in electronicmedical records to shape practice guidelines and policies.Medical Decision Making is a valuable resource for allexperienced and learning clinicians who wish to fully understandand apply decision modelling, enhance their practice and improvepatient outcomes."There is little doubt that in the future many clinicalanalyses will be based on the methods described in MedicalDecision Making, and the book provides a basis for a criticalappraisal of such policies." - Jerome P. Kassirer M.D.Distinguished Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, USand Visiting Professor, Stanford Medical School, US

Foreword - Jerome KassirerPrefaceChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Differential DiagnosisChapter 3: Probability: Quantifying UncertaintyChapter 4: Understanding New Information: Bayes' TheoremChapter 5: Measuring the Accuracy of Diagnostic InformationChapter 6: Expected Value Decision AnalysisChapter 7: Markov Models and Time-Varying OutcomesChapter 8: Measuring the Outcome of CareChapter 9: Selection and Interpretation of Diagnostic TestsChapter 10: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis and Cost-Benefit AnalysisChapter 11: Medical Decision Making In Practice: Advanced MethodsIndex