Medical Decision Making: A Physician's Guide

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.

Alan Schwartz is Associate Professor and Director of Research at the Department of Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also Senior Research Specialist at the Department of Pediatrics, University of Illinois George Bergus is Professor and Associate Head for Education at the Department of Family Medicine, University of Iowa