WARF TECHNOLOGIES

Accurate physician-patient communication is a central tenet of shared decision making (SDM), an approach which encourages providers and patients to review the best available data when making treatment decisions to make informed care choices. Shared decision-making is particularly important in areas such as cancer treatment, where beneficial treatments may carry significant risks in toxicity or cost. While the physician can evaluate the technical dimensions of medical decision-making, in most cases, the final decision will be highly dependent on the patient's preferences with respect to balancing risk and benefit, increasing the complexity of the evaluation.

UW-Madison researchers have devised a decision support framework to provide a data-driven clinical decision tool to enable (1) quantitative comparison between treatment options with differing risk/benfit profiles. This tool also enables longitudinal follow-up of the patient treatment trajectory. The tool can assist physicians in explaining risks/benefits to their patients and in particular provides a simple visualization tailored to a particular patient.

For More Information About the Inventors

• Robert Jeraj

Tech Fields

• Medical Devices : Diagnostics & monitoring tools