Document Detail


Medical decision making as a "historical" combination of art, statistics, experimentalism and evidence based practice.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20977153     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
"Decision making" in many fields of human activity is often carried out in typically stressful situations and in a brief space of time. The basis of decision making has been studied under different aspects, taking mainly into account the uncertainty underlying the decision, and all the risks that every decision implies. Less attention has been paid to the criteria governing decision making. It is generally retained that decisions should be taken in the best interests of the individual, as in the medical field. With specific reference to this field, physicians are continuously urged to take decisions, in various and different contexts, with ever-present subjective evaluations, sometimes with limited health statistics, sometimes with conflicting biomedical experimentation, sometimes even without supporting scientific evidence. It is precisely for these reasons that medical decision making cannot be considered a straightforward process. By means of the elements described in this paper, and discussed using historically documented evidence, current medical decision making is here presented as a simultaneously subjective and objective complex combination of different components varying in quantity and quality: artistic, statistical, experimental and evidence based.
Authors:
Andrea A Conti; Antonio Conti; Gian Franco Gensini
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Historical Article; Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Vesalius : acta internationales historiae medicinae     Volume:  16     ISSN:  -     ISO Abbreviation:  Vesalius     Publication Date:  2010 Jun 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-10-27     Completed Date:  2010-12-02     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9517855     Medline TA:  Vesalius     Country:  Belgium    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  19-23     Citation Subset:  QIS    
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Area Critica Medico Chirurgica, Università Degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. aa.conti@dac.unifi.it
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Art
Biomedical Research
Evidence-Based Medicine / history*
History of Medicine*
History, 18th Century
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
Statistics as Topic

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