He is also the Director of the Laboratory for Medical Decision Sciences at Washington University and serves on the Innovations in Healthcare Grant Review Committee for BJC Health System. He is Chair of the Issues Committee, and Past-President, of the Society for Medical Decision Making. Dr. Nease received his B.S. from the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles and received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems, Stanford University.
Most health interventions have both desirable and undesirable effects.
In addition, most health interventions incur a net monetary cost. Thus, rational decision making about a health intervention requires that the decision maker balance the likely benefits against the likely harms. Utility assessment provides a formal method for making these tradeoffs explicit. When coupled with decision analysis or cost-effectiveness analysis, utility assessment can help provide insight into the best treatment strategy or health policy. Introduce and review methods for utility assessment 2.