The purpose of this activity is to increase communication and dissemination of research between the basic sciences of judgment and decision making (JDM) and the applied science of medical decision making (MDM). Despite common roots, there are important differences between JDM and MDM as currently studied and practiced. While researchers in each field are often methodologists, the JDM community has focused the majority of its attention on the development and testing of theories of human decision making, and the MDM community has focused its work on the application of normative models of decision making to policy decisions and the development and refinement of prescriptive tools for decision making by patients and health professionals. Each field could be enriched by increased interchange.
The vehicle for this interchange is an innovative collaboration initiation culminating in an exchange of symposia between the 2009 annual meetings of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM) and the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) and subsequent dissemination of the symposium presentations. Top researchers in JDM will be selected through a peer-review process and matched with researchers in SMDM to collaboratively present a symposium at SMDM entitled "Connections with Judgment and Decision Making"; top researchers in MDM will be selected through a peer-review process and matched with researchers in SJDM to collaboratively present a symposium at SJDM entitled "Connections with Medical Decision Making". The symposia will be aggressively disseminated through online video and audio, as well as through academic publication. In addition, a JDM scientist will present a short course on dynamic decision making at the SMDM meeting.
