Clinical Decision Making: From Theory to Practice

This book collects the famous series ofJAMAessays by David Eddy, MD, PhD, published in the early 1990s, updates some of them, and adds to them. The 31 essays were published between 1982 and 1994 (three are reprinted from theNew England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, andthe Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons). Eddy tackles such issues as writing practice guidelines and practicing under those guidelines, evaluating guidelines, physician uncertainty, evidence-based medicine, balancing quality and cost, rationing, and the responsibilities of managed care organizations and physician societies. Eddy, who has been surgeon, engineer, professor at Stanford and Duke University Medical Schools, software inventor, and consultant to the managed care industry, is a boldly original health thinker. It is evident that he, unlike some other ethicists and policymakers, has seen quite a few patients in the course of his distinguished career. The book will be of