Although rarely studied, physician-patient interactions immediately following diagnostic tests are significant medical events because during these encounters the physician and patient often make decisions about major and sometimes invasive treatment. This investigation analyzed patterns of...

A fundamental assumption of utility-based analyses is that patient utilities for health states can be measured on an equal-interval scale. This assumption, however, has not been widely examined. The objective of this study was to assess whether the rating scale (RS), standard gamble (SG), and...