Medical Decision Making (MDM), published by academic publisher SAGE, has included a special section in the November/December 2008 issue of the journal as a way to help both the sick and their medical care providers to make the best healthcare decisions. The section examines three current evidenced-based theories that can help to improve assessments, assist in prevention programmes, and help with intervention efforts.
The special section sprang from a symposium at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM). The authors have gone beyond their symposium addresses to summarise the major findings and rationale for each of their positions, showing that it's important to make medical decisions based on an array of available scientific theories instead of "on the fly." The section contains five articles, three of which each examine a different theory, along with an introductory and closing commentary article. The articles are freely available online at http://mdm.sagepub.com.
Medical Decision Making is the official journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making. The journal publishes articles designed to improve the health and clinical care of individuals and to assist with health policy development. Presenting theoretical, statistical, and modeling methods from a variety of disciplines, including decision psychology, health economics, clinical epidemiology, and evidence synthesis, the journal promotes understanding of human decision-making processes so that individuals can make more informed and satisfying choices regarding their health.
