Terms and Definitions Heuristic. Heuristics are used to estimate probabilities and compare events with known probabilities to ones with unknown probabilities. In health care delivery, they can denote a standard approach to a particular clinical problem. Algorithms can branch and return to original or intermediate points in the process. This action is called recursive partitioning.
Decision analysis is a systematic approach to decision making under conditions of uncertainty.
It is a formal method of integrating probabilities and values to determine the 'optimal' course of an action. Assign probabilities to events over which the decision maker has no control. Assign values or utilities to outcomes. An expert system is a software program that relies on a body of knowledge to perform a somewhat difficult task usually only performed by a human expert. Uses of Expert Systems Expert systems are frequently used for business management decisions such as determining marketing strategies, evaluating media strategies, developing sales quotas, or developing strategies for company objectives.