ABSTRACT
Healthcare decisions are complex and healthcare is expensive. Unlike most daily choices, decisions made in the clinical setting have substantial consequences and involve uncertainties and tradeoffs that need to be carefully weighed. Treatment benefit versus risk, survival versus quality of life, and cost versus health improvement are just few of the many difficult decisions clinicians encounter daily. Decision making in healthcare is based on several factors such as information and resources available to patients and clinicians, as well as personal preferences and costs (Hunink et al., 2001; Spetz, 2005). Therefore, we need to know not only the efficacy of an intervention but also the attributable costs.
