Modelling Shared Decision Making Interactions Using Influence Diagrams

Abstract

Shared Decision Making (SDM) has become a predominant element of patient-centered healthcare delivery in recent years. In SDM, multiple agents, including a patient and a clinician interact to make a joint decision that is aligned with the patient’s preferences. Despite its popularity, previous SDM studies lack structured decision modeling approaches applied to this problem. This paper presents Influence Diagram (ID) models for SDM agents, and proposes graphical operations for IDs to model the interaction between the agents. Using a case study, we demonstrate that widely used conceptual models for SDM such as the Three Talk Model are aligned with the proposed ID models and operations. The case study also shows that SDM is a cooperative decision making setting that is also present in non-clinical domains. The proposed influence diagrams and interaction operations enable SDM to be studied based on structured and quantitative decision models.