title: Clinical practice. How physicians make medical decisions and why medical decision making can help.
abstract: Medical decision making (MDM) contains tools that can contribute to the skill and expertise of physicians. MDM is especially useful for primary care physicians. Practicing in this clinical world is practicing in a world of great uncertainty--the world in which many of these tools were designed to be useful.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Practice, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Bergus
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Hamm
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D003662:Decision Theory; D003933:Diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*