Medical decision profiles derived from a symptom questionnaire.

The introduction of formalized systems for data acquisition provide a basis for the investigation of medical decision making. Patients admitted to a general medical ward completed a comprehensive, medical history. Decisions relating to their subsequent diagnosis, investigation and management were made after complete investigation and were recorded with their questionnaire responses. A computer programme was developed to compare questionnaire responses from patients who did, and patients who did not have each particular decision made, and to assign a value to each question depending on the significance of its association with the decision. The set of values, one for each question, was termed a decision profile and was characteristic of that decision.