The Ethics of Choosing a Surrogate Decision Maker When Equal-Priority Surrogates Disagree

When Should a Decision Maker Ignore the Advice of a Decision Aid?

-This paper provides a simple probability analysis of the usefulness of decision aids that generate fallible advice . The main results are as fol­ lows. The usefulness of a decision aid depends heavily on the ability of the user to identify contexts in which the aid (or user unaided) is likely to be incorrect. Without this ability, attending to (i.e., consider, but not always ac­ cept) the advi...

A Fuzzy Decision Maker

One of the most useful aspects of fuzzy set theory is its ability to represent mathematically a class of decision problems called multiple objective decisions (MODs). This class of problems often involves many vague and ambiguous (and thus fuzzy) goals and constraints. The object of the fuzzy decision methodology is to obtain a decision, optimum in the sense that some set of goals is attained w...

Surrogate measures and consistent surrogates.

Surrogates which allow one to predict the effect of the treatment on the outcome of interest from the effect of the treatment on the surrogate are of importance when it is difficult or expensive to measure the primary outcome. Unfortunately, the use of such surrogates can give rise to paradoxical situations in which the effect of the treatment on the surrogate is positive, the surrogate and out...

The adaptive decision maker

Timing of do-not-resuscitate orders for hospitalized older adults who require a surrogate decision-maker.

OBJECTIVES To examine the frequency of surrogate decisions for in-hospital do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders and the timing of DNR order entry for surrogate decisions. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Large, urban, public hospital. PARTICIPANTS Hospitalized adults aged 65 and older over a 3-year period (1/1/2004-12/31/2006) with a DNR order during their hospital stay. MEASUREMEN...