The convergence of the aging of our society, the increase in blended families, and an enormous intergenerational transfer of wealth has greatly expanded the incidence and importance of capacity assessment of older adults. In this article we discuss the emergence of capacity assessment as a distinct field of study. We review research efforts in two domains: medical decision-making capacity and f...

BACKGROUND Patients' involvement in medical decision-making is crucial to provide good quality of care that is respectful of, and responsive to, patients' preferences, needs and values. Whether people want to be involved in medical decision-making is associated with individual patient characteristics, and health status. However, the observation of differences in whether people want to be involv...

In patient-centred care, shared decision-making is advocated as the preferred form of medical decision-making. Shared decision-making is supported with reference to patient autonomy without abandoning the patient or giving up the possibility of influencing how the patient is benefited. It is, however, not transparent how shared decision-making is related to autonomy and, in effect, what support...

This article is a personal account of the author's experiences as an economist working in medical decision making. He discusses the differences between economic decision theory and medical decision making and gives examples of the mutual benefits resulting from interactions. In particular, he discusses the pros and cons of different methods for measuring quality of life (or, as economists would...

The AdWatch section of the Healthy Skepticism website (http://www.healthyskepticism.org/adwatch.asp) aims to improve medical decision-making by illuminating the techniques used in drug advertising. AdWatch draws on 20 years of dialogue about drug promotion plus ideas from many disciplines, especially logic, psychology and marketing.

During the last two decades or so, there has been a struggle over the patient's role in medical decision-making that is often characterized as a conflict between autonomy and health, between the values of the patient and the values of the physician. Seeking to curtail physician dominance, many have advocated an ideal of greater patient control.',' Others question this ideal because it fails to ...