Biomaterial Database

[Comment on the application of medical decision making]. 1990

T Sakurai

Department of Biomedical Informatics, Kyoto University Hospital.

There are three features in decision making in medicine. Decisions must be made on uncertain diagnostic and therapeutic information, a selected course of action may have an unwanted outcome, and finally, actions can not be retried from the beginning. We often assume that, by ordering a test, we can obtain more information to assist better decision making. It should be pointed out, however, that the test itself may be harmful and/or costly, may cause delay of treatment, and may misguide the decision by giving a false result. The benefit/risk ratio of choosing a test depends on the prior probability of disease, sensitivity and specificity of the test, and the outcome (utilities) of the correct and incorrect diagnosis. By drawing decision trees and making a sensitivity analysis, decision analysis helps to make the balance explicit.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D003657	Decision Making	The process of making a selective intellectual judgment when presented with several complex alternatives consisting of several variables, and usually defining a course of action or an idea.	Credit Assignment,Assignment, Credit,Assignments, Credit,Credit Assignments
D003661	Decision Support Techniques	Mathematical or statistical procedures used as aids in making a decision. They are frequently used in medical decision-making.	Decision Analysis,Decision Modeling,Models, Decision Support,Analysis, Decision,Decision Aids,Decision Support Technics,Aid, Decision,Aids, Decision,Analyses, Decision,Decision Aid,Decision Analyses,Decision Support Model,Decision Support Models,Decision Support Technic,Decision Support Technique,Model, Decision Support,Modeling, Decision,Technic, Decision Support,Technics, Decision Support,Technique, Decision Support,Techniques, Decision Support
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012680	Sensitivity and Specificity	Binary classification measures to assess test results. Sensitivity or recall rate is the proportion of true positives. Specificity is the probability of correctly determining the absence of a condition. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)	Specificity,Sensitivity,Specificity and Sensitivity
D019411	Clinical Laboratory Techniques	Techniques used to carry out clinical investigative procedures in the diagnosis and therapy of disease.	Clinical Laboratory Test,Clinical Laboratory Testing,Clinical Laboratory Diagnoses,Clinical Laboratory Testings,Clinical Laboratory Tests,Diagnoses and Laboratory Examinations,Diagnosis, Laboratory,Laboratory Diagnosis,Laboratory Examinations and Diagnoses,Laboratory Techniques, Clinical,Clinical Laboratory Technique,Diagnose, Clinical Laboratory,Laboratory Diagnoses,Laboratory Technique, Clinical,Laboratory Test, Clinical,Laboratory Testing, Clinical,Technique, Clinical Laboratory,Test, Clinical Laboratory,Testing, Clinical Laboratory