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Probabilistic Information (probabilistic + information)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	66%

Selected Abstracts

A systematic review on communicating with patients about evidence

JOURNAL OF EVALUATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 1 2006
Lyndal J Trevena MBBS (Hons) MPhilPH
Abstract Objective, To conduct a systematic search for (1) the effectiveness of evidence-based communication tools to increase patient understanding of evidence, (2) effective formats for representing probabilistic information and (3) effective strategies for eliciting patient preferences about evidence. A case scenario is used to illustrate some of the difficulties of putting these results into practice., ,Data sources, Systematic search of The Cochrane Library, Medline, Psychinfo, Embase and Cancerlit. Review methods, Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and high quality RCTs were included. Studies were excluded if they did not address the question, were focused on behavioural outcomes without attempting to increase understanding, were concerned with counselling as a therapeutic intervention, or were specific to communication regarding clinical trial participation., ,Results, We found 10 systematic reviews of RCTs and 30 additional RCTs addressing our questions. Communication tools in most formats (verbal, written, video, provider-delivered, computer-based) will increase patients' understanding but are more likely to do so if structured, tailored and/or interactive. Probabilistic information is best represented as event rates (natural frequencies) in relevant groups of people, rather than words, probabilities or summarized as effect measures such as relative risk reduction. Illustrations such as cartoons, or graphs (vertical bar charts) appear to aid understanding. Values clarification exercises may be better than standard utility techniques for eliciting preferences in individual decision making. Looking for effective evidence-based communication tools for prostatic specific antigen testing highlighted the challenges for clinicians and consumers in accessing tools that are evidence-based in design as well as content. Conclusion, There is an increasing body of evidence supporting the design of effective evidence-based communication tools but variable access to such tools in practice. [source]

Assessing spatial probabilistic distributional differences in the common space between schizophrenics and normal controls based on a novel automated probabilistic pattern analysis method

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF IMAGING SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5-6 2008
Bang-Bon Koo
Abstract Because of the complex nature of the human brain, a full understanding of its various group specific variation factors such as volume, shape, and location related to age, gender, ethnic, and disease might be provided in both structural and functional neuroimaging studies. To serve this purpose, a novel approach for characterizing the group variability information using group specific labeled probabilistic maps was introduced in this article. An automatic labeling technique was applied to encode group specific probabilistic information for each region of interests (ROIs) covering the overall cortical region and a probabilistic pattern analytic method was proposed to assess the difference in the spatial extent between 70 schizophrenics and 70 controls in the common space. From our proposed method, we found major differences in 17 ROIs that had shown large variation in schizophrenics. Most of these ROIs were in the frontal and the temporal lobe and only three ROIs were in the parietal and the occipital lobe. The ROIs highlighted through our proposed method could be connected with previous morphological findings on schizophrenia and it also might be considered in functional analysis. As a result, our method could provide intuitive information on group difference relevant to the overall anatomical variability in the substructural level. Thus, it could be used as a prompting system to search and examine the regions of the brain that are worthy of further precise analysis by various sub-cortical region based group studies in assessing specific patterns related to diseases. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 18, 310,324, 2008 [source]

Preference solutions of probability decision making with rim quantifiers

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 12 2005
Xinwang Liu
This article extends the quantifier-guided aggregation method to include probabilistic information. A general framework for the preference solution of decision making under an uncertainty problem is proposed, which can include decision making under ignorance and decision making under risk methods as special cases with some specific preference parameters. Almost all the properties, especially the monotonicity property, are kept in this general form. With the generating function representation of the Regular Increasing Monotone (RIM) quantifier, some properties of the RIM quantifier are discussed. A parameterized RIM quantifier to represent the valuation preference for probabilistic decision making is proposed. Then the risk attitude representation method is integrated in this quantifier-guided probabilistic decision making model to make it a general form of decision making under uncertainty. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 20: 1253,1271, 2005. [source]

Belief revision and information fusion on optimum entropy

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 9 2004
Gabriele Kern-Isberner
This article presents new methods for probabilistic belief revision and information fusion. By making use of the information theoretical principles of optimum entropy (ME principles), we define a generalized revision operator that aims at simulating the human learning of lessons, and we introduce a fusion operator that handles probabilistic information faithfully. This ME-fusion operator satisfies basic demands, such as commutativity and the Pareto principle. A detailed analysis shows it to merge the corresponding epistemic states. Furthermore, it induces a numerical fusion operator that computes the information theoretical mean of probabilities. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 19: 837,857, 2004. [source]

Clinician's use of the Statin Choice decision aid in patients with diabetes: a videographic study nested in a randomized trial

JOURNAL OF EVALUATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 3 2009
Roberto Abadie PhD
Abstract Objective, To describe how clinicians use decision aids. Background, A 98-patient factorial-design randomized trial of the Statin Choice decision vs. standard educational pamphlet; each participant had a 1:4 chance of receiving the decision aid during the encounter with the clinician resulting in 22 eligible encounters. Design, Two researchers working independently and in duplicate reviewed and coded the 22 encounter videos. Setting and participants, Twenty-two patients with diabetes (57% of them on statins) and six endocrinologists working in a referral diabetes clinic randomly assigned to use the decision aid during the consultation. Main outcome measures, Proportion and nature of unintended use of the Statin Choice decision aid. Results, We found eight encounters involving six clinicians who did not use the decision aid as intended either by not using it at all (n = 5; one clinician did use the decision aid in three encounters), offering inaccurate quantitative and probabilistic information about the risks and benefits of statins (n = 2), or using the decision aid to advance the agenda that all patients with diabetes should take statin (n = 1). Clinicians used the decision aid as intended in all other encounters. Conclusions, Unintended decision aid use in the context of videotaped encounters in a practical randomized trial was common. These instances offer insights to researchers seeking to design and implement effective decision aids for use during the clinical visit, particularly when clinicians may prefer to proceed in ways that the decision aid apparently contradicts. [source]