Evidence-Based Decision-Making: How to Leverage Available Data and Avoid Cognitive Biases examines how a wide range of factual evidence, primarily derived from a variety of data available to organizations, can be used to improve the quality of business decision-making, by helping decision makers circumvent the various cognitive biases that adversely impact how we all think. The book is built on the following premise: During the past decade, the new ‘data world’ emerged, in which the rush to develop competencies around business analytics and data science can be characterized as nothing less than the new commercial arms race. The ever-expanding volume and variety of data are well known, as are the great advances in data processing/analytics, data visualization, and related information production-focused capabilities. Yet, comparatively little effort has been devoted to how the informational products of business analytics and data science are ‘consumed’ or used in the organizational decision-making processes, as the available evidence shows that only some of that information is used to drive some business decisions some of the time. Evidence-Based Decision-Making details an explicit process describing how the universe of available and applicable evidence, which includes organizational and other data, industry benchmarks, scientific studies, and professional experience, can be assessed, amalgamated, and funneled into an objective driver of key business decisions. Introducing key concepts in relation to data and evidence, and the history of evidence-based management, this new and extremely topical book will be essential reading for researchers and students of data analytics as well as those working in the private and public sectors, and in the voluntary sector.

This concise, hands-on text provides dental hygiene and dentistry students and practitioners with a method for making evidence-based decisions in practice. The book presents a step-by-step approach to mastering the five essential skills of evidence-based decision making%formulating patient-centered questions, searching for the appropriate evidence, critically appraising the evidence, applying the evidence to practice, and evaluating the process. Five Case Scenarios are used throughout the book in coordination with these skills and cover the broad areas of therapy/prevention, diagnosis, etiology/harm/causation, and prognosis. Each chapter has objectives, suggested activities, a quiz, critical thinking questions, and exercises. A companion Website includes online tutorials, additional cases, and links to additional resources. http://thepoint.lww.com/product/isbn/9780781765336

Decisions in businesses and organizations are too often based on fads, fashions and the success stories of famous CEOs. At the same time, traditional models and new cutting-edge solutions often fail to deliver on what they promise. This situation leaves managers, business leaders, consultants and policymakers with a profound challenge: how can we stay away from trends and quick fixes, and instead use valid and reliable evidence to support the organization? In response to this problem, evidence-based management has evolved with the goal of improving the quality of decision-making by using critically evaluated evidence from multiple sources - organizational data, professional expertise, stakeholder values and scientific literature. This book sets out and explains the specific skills needed to gather, understand and use evidence to make better-informed organizational decisions. Evidence-Based Management is a comprehensive guide that provides current and future managers, consultants and organizational leaders with the knowledge and practical skills to improve the quality and outcome of their decision-making. Online resources include case studies, exercises, lecture slides and further reading.

This clinically oriented book covers all aspects of the evidence-based decision making process in multidisciplinary management of the natural dentition. The book opens by clarifying the principles of evidence-based decision making and explaining how these principles should be applied in daily practice. Individual chapters then focus specifically, and in detail, on endodontic, periodontal, and prosthetic considerations, identifying aspects that need to be integrated into decision making and treatment planning. Evidence-based decision making with regard to preservation of the natural tooth versus extraction and implant placement is then discussed, and a concluding chapter examines likely future trends in dentistry and how they may affect clinical decision making. The authors include leading endodontists, periodontists, and prosthodontists. Given the multidisciplinary and comprehensive nature of the book, it will be relevant and interesting to the entire dental community.

Now in its fourth edition, Rational Diagnosis and Treatment: Evidence-Based Clinical Decision-Making is a unique book to look at evidence-based medicine and the difficulty of applying evidence from group studies to individual patients. The book analyses the successive stages of the decision process and deals with topics such as the examination of the patient, the reliability of clinical data, the logic of diagnosis, the fallacies of uncontrolled therapeutic experience and the need for randomised clinical trials and meta-analyses. It is the main theme of the book that, whenever possible, clinical decisions must be based on the evidence from clinical research, but the authors also explain the pitfalls of such research and the problems involved in applying evidence from groups of patients to the individual patient. For this new edition, the sections on placebo and meta-analysis and on alternative medicine have been thoroughly updated, and there is more focus on insufficient reporting of harms of interventions. The sections on different research designs describe advantages and limitations, and the increased medicalisation and the effects of cancer screening on health people are noted. A section on academic freedom when clinicians collaborate with industry and ghost authors is added. This essential reference work integrates the science and statistical approach of evidence-based medicine with the art and humanism of medical practice; distinguishing between data, sets of data, knowledge and wisdom, and their application. Such an intellectually challenging book is ideal for both medical students and doctors who require theoretical and practical clinical skills to help ensure that they apply theory in practice.

Take the Practical Approach to Applying EBM Principles Pharmacists who make clinical decisions based on experience alone overestimate the efficacy and underestimate the safety risks of drugs. This leads to variations in services and treatment that result in inappropriate care, lack of care, and increased healthcare costs. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) employs the scientific method as the key source of knowledge for making clinical decisions. This easy-to-use new guide provides a practical approach for confidently applying EBM principles in daily practice. It's a straightforward process that allows pharmacists to incorporate their own clinical judgment while they make firm decisions and recommendations based on results of rigorously conducted clinical trials. Based on a five-step process perfected over 10 years at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, School of Pharmacy, this exciting new method makes it easy to apply the EBM approach in clinical settings. The new process streamlines the highly technical and complex original EBM method, greatly reducing its complexity while maintaining rigor. Categorizing quality of the evidence in a simple and logical manner, it provides critical, time-sensitive support for clinical decision-making.

The Politics of Evidence Based Policymaking identifies how to work with policymakers to maximize the use of scientific evidence. Policymakers cannot consider all evidence relevant to policy problems. They use two shortcuts: ‘rational’ ways to gather enough evidence, and ‘irrational’ decision-making, drawing on emotions, beliefs, and habits. Most scientific studies focus on the former. They identify uncertainty when policymakers have incomplete evidence, and try to solve it by improving the supply of information. They do not respond to ambiguity, or the potential for policymakers to understand problems in very different ways. A good strategy requires advocates to be persuasive: forming coalitions with like-minded actors, and accompanying evidence with simple stories to exploit the emotional or ideological biases of policymakers.

The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-based Management shows how leaders and managers can make effective use of best available evidence in the decisions they make — and what educators and researchers need to do to help them come to the right solution.

Which Evidence-Based Practice Should I Use? A Social Worker's Handbook for Decision Making provides readers with a step-by-step guide for applying the original evidence-based practice (EBP) model to carefully select interventions from the research base for individual clients. Readers learn how to obtain and integrate information from three key components--the best available evidence; clinical expertise; and the client's characteristics, values, and preferences--to support their choice of an effective intervention for the client. The text employs problem-based learning and case method approaches to teach readers how to access intervention literature; how to evaluate what is "best evidence"; what the research endeavor represents and who it excludes; how to rely on the expertise of the practitioner community; and how to consider the client's view of the problem. Ultimately, readers are guided to select an EBP for a client and write a case paper that articulates the steps they took and the reasoning for their selection. Filled with brief lectures, reflection questions, activities, and case examples, Which Evidence-Based Practice Should I Use? is an ideal text for social work practice and research courses and for mental health practitioners who wish to sharpen their skills for using the evidence base.