Decision analysis in patient care [Review]

To help patients to fully participate in shared decision making is becoming an important goal in clinical practice and one which is receiving increasing attention in terms of the requisite skills and technological development. We discuss the potential application of decision analysis—a specific technology that has been introduced into clinical practice but to date only within research contexts—and examine the usefulness and feasibility of the technique for patients, particularly in settings where clinical presentations are diverse and characterised by uncertainty