Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Science
Economics
Law
Politics
Figure
7.5
Decision force field for a scientifically based decision, although other factors (legal, financial, and political) are
influencing the final outcome.
Science
Economics
Law
Politics
Figure
7.6
Decision force field for complex decisions with multiple influences with about equal influence on the outcome.
These factors are then summed to give the overall net goodness of the decision:
NG
=
(goodness of a consequence)
×
importance
×
likelihood
(7.1)
Thus, this can be valuable in decisions that have not yet been made, as well as in what decisions “should”
have been made in a case. For example, these analyses sometimes use ordinal scales, such as 0 through 3,
where 0 is nonexistence (e.g., zero likelihood or zero importance) and 1, 2, and 3 are low, medium, and high,
respectively. Thus, there may be many small consequences that are near zero in importance and, since NG
is a product, the overall net goodness of the decision is driven almost entirely by one or a few important
and likely consequences. The scale of goodness may range from
−
3 to +3 (immoral to very moral).
