Revised Abstract: The Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) dedicates its efforts to promoting rational and systematic approaches to improving individual and public health, and informing societal health policy. Society members utilize multiple routes to disseminate the results of their analyses, including traditional print professional journal publications, and regional and national oral and poster presentations. The Society's annual meeting features current results which represent a rich cross-section of analytic disciplines include: decision analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-benefit analysis, meta-analysis, simulation techniques, decision technology, and medical ethics. Just a few of the methodologies highlighted at this meeting. We are seeking support for a symposium titled: """"""""Emotions, evaluations, and decision making: Social scientists explore the limits of rationality,"""""""" which will introduce SMDM members to cutting-edge research from leading psychologists and economists on emotions and decision making. In addition, we seek support for two short courses led by psychologists, whose work, while highly relevant to society members, may not be familiar to them. The goals for the symposium and the short courses include: introducing SMDM members to cutting edge research in psychology and economics that is relevant to medical decision making: promoting members' understanding of the limits of rationality; and broadening the scope of social science methods used by health services researchers to address important topics in medical decision making. The presentations and discussion will be edited for publication in the journal Medical Decision Making, and also disseminated through the society's website. The proposed dates for the symposium and short courses are October 20 through October 22, 2003.
