Decision analysis and its application in clinical medicine

Decision analysis is increasingly used to address difficult medical problems. Case-by-case models designed for individual patients facing complex trade-offs in their medical care often help individual clinical decision making, but are expensive and time consuming. On the other hand, generic models addressing broad clinical questions that can be adapted from one patient to another, can often make valid projections about specific outcomes, such as life expectancy, quality-adjusted life expectancy, and cost-effectiveness issues, and represent a useful approach to clinical decision making.