Abstract
The inability to consider explicitly factors that should enter into clinical judgment compromises physician efforts to make cost-effective decisions regarding diagnostic testing and treatment. The authors describe the decision-threshold approach, a decision-analysis strategy that helps physicians identify an optimal test-treatment decision based upon the prior probability of disease, the characteristics of the test (sensitivity, specificity, risk), and the benefits/costs of treatment. They also present a microcomputer graphics program that makes the decision-threshold approach readily available to physicians.
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Received from the Department of Internal Medicine, VA Medical Center and Medical School, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, the Faculte Catholique de Mons, Belgium, and the Centre de Recherchese Economiques. Sociologiques et de Gestion, Lille, France.
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Eraker, S.A., Eeckhoudt, L.R., Vanbutsele, R.J.M. et al. To test or not to test — To treat or not to treat. J Gen Intern Med 1, 177–182 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02602334
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02602334