title: Primer on medical decision analysis: Part 1--Getting started.
abstract: This paper is Part 1 of a five-part series covering practical issues in the performance of decision analysis. The intended audience is individuals who are learning how to perform decision analyses, not just read them. The series assumes familiarity with the basic concepts of decision analysis. It imparts many of the recommendations the authors have learned in teaching a one-semester course in decision analysis to graduate students. Part 1 introduces the topic and covers questions such as choosing an appropriate question, determining the tradeoff between accuracy and simplicity, and deciding on a time frame.
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto Programme in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research (The Toronto Hospital and The Sunnybrook Health Science Centre Units), Ontario, Canada. detsky@utstat.toronto.edu
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Detsky
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Naglie
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Krahn
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Naimark
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Redelmeier
mesh_terms: D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D003663:Decision Trees; D006801:Humans; D011336:Probability