Decision Quality

Decision quality in these papers often refers to the degree to which a treatment decision reflects the preferences, needs, and values of a patient who is well-informed about his or her treatment options.

Measuring decision quality helps shed light on ways to improve the decision-making process and whether or not “good” treatment decisions are being applied in the practice of medicine. However, measuring decision quality can be a challenge. For example, assessing whether a patient was truly informed requires that researchers assess whether the patient had the relevant information needed and the final decision reflected his or her concerns and values. Gathering and accurately quantifying such information can be difficult.

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The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision-making offers these definitions to provide context for the topic areas
and a deeper understanding of the referenced articles within each topic.