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F Sainfort

Publications and source records attributed to F Sainfort.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Measuring post-decision satisfaction.

Measuring satisfaction with a decision after a choice has been made is particularly important for difficult choice situations where there is no "right" decision and/or where long-term consequences are uncertain. While others have developed instruments that primarily focus on clinical decisions, the authors developed a scale-the decision-attitude scale-in the context of consumers' choice of health plan. They examined the reliability and validity of this scale using data from a sample of state employees. While the decision-attitude scale has been applied to a health-plan-choice problem only, it can be applied to a variety of other health-related decision problems, because it shares a core set of items with the existing Satisfaction with Decision Scale. The authors identify and discuss the similarities and differences between the two scales. They also observe that each scale uncovers an additional construct not addressed by the other, suggesting that the concept of post-decision satisfaction is multidimensional. A new instrument combining items from both scales may prove the best measure of decision satisfaction for a variety of health-related decision problems.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A time-tradeoff method for cost-effectiveness models applied to radiology.

PURPOSE: The wait tradeoff (WTO) is a simple time-tradeoff method designed for temporary health states that uses a realistic and intuitive interface for the patient/subject. This method was tested by assessing patients' preferences for magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) versus x-ray angiography (XRA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The WTO was tested by telephone interview in 38 patients with atherosclerotic peripheral vascular disease, all having previously undergone both MRA and XRA. At indifference point, patients were ambivalent about having MRA or XRA and immediate treatment, versus having a waiting period for test results and treatment after a hypothetical "ideal test" that entailed no pain or risk. RESULTS: The patients were willing to wait a mean of 42.1 days after the ideal test for results and treatment, as opposed to XRA. They were willing to wait only 16.1 days as opposed to MRA. This difference in waiting times was significant (p = 0.0001) and indicates a clear preference for MRA, in agreement with known literature. CONCLUSION: The WTO method assesses preferences for these radiologic tests in an intuitive fashion that does not invoke artificial or irrelevant health states. This approach may also prove useful for other testing situations or short-term treatments being evaluated for cost-effectiveness.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of medical technologies: a generalized ROC analysis.

The author describes a new methodology to solve medical decision problems involving a choice between alternatives under conditions of risk and uncertainty when imperfect empirical information from diagnostic technologies is available. The main new concept is the generalized ROC (GROC) curve, which extends considerably the scope of analysis of the traditional ROC curve as well as the threshold approach to medical decision making. Both techniques become special cases of the new general approach. The author shows how to apply the technique and derive comprehensive clinical guidelines to solve the medical decision problem involving one patient in the most general situation. The larger problem of evaluating the performances of diagnostic technologies for a population of patients with varying prior probabilities of disease is then addressed. A new measure of performance is proposed that goes beyond the well-accepted area under the ROC curve index. This measure is used to compare different technologies for a population of patients, and a new methodology is proposed to carry out such comparisons.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗