Principles of clinical decision making--an introduction to decision analysis. A special communication.

Physical therapists are becoming increasingly aware of the growing complexity of clinical decision making. The level of understanding and the sophistication necessary to diagnose, treat, and manage medical problems has increased concomitantly with the increase in new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The purposes of this special communication are to discuss the principles of clinical decision making and to present a hypothetical situation to illustrate a decision analysis process for choosing among alternative treatment protocols.