INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL DECISION MAKING

Course size limit: 25 Level: Beginner Background: This course is intended for individuals new to decision analysis who wish to learn the basic principles of formulating and analyzing clinical decisions. The course is "hands-on" and uses in-class exercises to teach the building blocks of decision analysis. These blocks are Bayes' rule, interpreting the results of diagnostic tests, formulating a medical decision problem, measuring utilities and risk attitude, calculating expected utility, and performing sensitivity analysis, as well as (at an elementary level) cost-effectiveness analysis. Objectives and Course Description: First participants are made familiar with the methods of MDM through teaching and exercises. Then the course o brings these methods home by applying them to participants' clinical or research-questions o in addition, in this way aims to show what MDM may or may not do, and thus interactively demonstrate its strengths and limitations at the level of the individual, of patient groups and of society To this end course participants are invited to send in their own clinical or research decision questions by email before the course,(a selection of) which will be used for teaching purposes. Format, Requirements, Target Audience: Participants will be asked to send in a short form with their own decision problem(s) by email.