In:
Medical Decision Making, SAGE Publications, Vol. 12, No. 1 ( 1992-02), p. 39-43
Abstract:
Among those decisions that may be made by a patient in response to an illness, the authors single out a certain class. contingent investment decisions. They are characterized by the patient's committing him- or herself, on the basis of prognostic counseling, to a certain action or non-action that he or she may regret in retrospect Examples show that, when assessing utilities, the decision analyst runs a risk of handling such investment decisions incorrectly, unless they are made explicit and incorporated into the medical decision process. The anomaly is explained as a violation of the structural rules for decision trees and is also interpreted in terms of "the price of prognostic ignorance," a quantity closely related to the expected utility value of perfect information. Key words: decision theory; physician-patient relations, patient compliance; prognosis; risk-taking, quality of life; utility theory; patients' decisions, decision trees. (Med Decis Making 1992;12:39-43)
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0272-989X
,
1552-681X
DOI:
10.1177/0272989X9201200107
Language:
English
Publisher:
SAGE Publications
Publication Date:
1992
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2040405-0
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