Decision analysis in clinical practice

Medical diagnosis and treatment, as examples of decision making under uncertainty, provide an ideal setting for the application of decision analysis. The paper, in selecting reports of medical decision analysis. discusses the usefulness of elements in decision analysis to the clinical setting. These include decision trees, probability assessments, and utility theory. Some concepts are welcomed by the medical profession and should be utilized to their utmost. However, some reported applications cannot be practically implemented for such reasons as physician time constraints and professional opposition. The paper identifies classes of clinical decision problems which are amenable to decision analysis and proposes ways of adapting the theory to clinical practice.