In silico study of medical decision-making for rare diseases: heterogeneity of decision-makers in a population improves overall benefit.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Medical decision-making is difficult when information is limited due to its rareness. For example, there are two treatment options for patients affected by a rare disease with high lethality. The information about both treatment effects is unavailable or very limited. Patients are inclined to accept one of the interventions rather than waiting for death, but they are reluctant to be assigned the inferior one. While a single patient selects one treatment that seems better based on the limited information, he or she loses the chance to select the other treatment, which may be the better option. This is the so-called dilemma between exploitation (enjoying the benefits of using current knowledge) and exploration (taking the risk to obtain new knowledge). In clinical settings

SUBMITTER: Wang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6161698 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature