Recent debate in both Europe and North America has focussed on how clinicians make judgments and decisions, how these may be evaluated and how they could be improved. This volume provides students, teachers and practitioners with a comprehensive introduction to the main descriptive and prescriptive approaches to judgment and decision making in clinical medicine. The contributors, who include psychologists, economists, decision theorists, statisticians, lawyers and sociologists, as well as medical specialists, provide examples of recent empirical research and its applications, as well as outlining the relevant concepts and theories. Policy-capturing models, data-based aids, expert ('knowledg-based') systems and decision analysis are the main techniques introduced, with attention to both their methodological bases and practical evaluation. Also included in the collection are a series of papers which consider the economic, ethical and legal contexts of clinical activity and the education and wider socialization of clinicians. Issues surrounding the 'cost-effective' use of resources, the obtaining of 'informed consent' from patients and ethical behaviour under uncertainty are highlighted.
Reviews
"The editors have done well in selecting some of the best papers that were available in the areas addressed." Medical Decision Making
"This book is an interesting presentation of the most promising research in clinical decision making by scholarly authors from various disciplines...The editors have provided as complete a book on clinical decision making as is currently available." The American Journal of Medicine
"Each essay is insightful, each is persuasive....No review can do justice to the complexities of the book....the interested reader is encouraged to examine the editors' introduction. This is a comprehensive overview of the contents of the book and a concise description of the present state of the field. After reading it, most readers will want to read the remainder of the book." Lee Roy Beach and Karl Halvor Teigen, Journal of Mathematical Psychology



Book Information
ISBN 9780521346962
Author Jack Dowie
Format Paperback
Page Count 584
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 910g
Dimensions(mm) 227mm * 149mm * 34mm