Have you ever wondered what’s going through your doctor’s head when they are prescribing a treatment for you? You’re not alone.
A partnership between Lehigh Business and Geisinger Health Systems is funding a $100,000 startup grant for Felipe Augusto de Araujo, assistant professor of economics, to study the psychology of the physician decision-making process as it relates to guideline adherence.
Medical associations have issued several easy-to-follow guidelines to assist physicians as they make treatment decisions. For some guidelines, comprehensive clinical trials have documented their benefit. Many studies have demonstrated, however, that physicians often don’t follow guidelines. Augusto de Araujo and co-authors will be studying why physicians often deviate from guidelines.
Augusto de Araujo is interested in understanding if it is a physician-specific effect, like over confidence, some other decision-making bias, or if deviations are caused by other factors, for example how busy the hospital or care facility is.
“These decisions are more consequential than when we go to the supermarket and end up buying the wrong brand of cereal because of a decision-making bias,” says Augusto de Araujo, “so physician decision-making is an important area to examine.”