Decision Analysis

Abstract

During nearly a decade of trying to bring decision analysis into clinical use, I have been impressed by the negative reactions of many students and physicians. On ward rounds, at lectures and at morning report the technic is disparaged, and its day-to-day use in patient cafe resisted. Decision analysis is said, among other things, to take too much time to apply, to require spurious quantification and to be dehumanizing. I have also encountered another layer of concerns, expressed less readily, which seem to be based on apprehension over the effect that the widespread use of decision analysis will have on . . .