Decision Science

Decision Science is the collection of quantitative techniques used to inform decision-making at the individual and population levels. It include decision analysis, risk analysis, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis, constrained optimization, simulation modeling, and behavioral decision theory, as well as parts of operations research, microeconomics, statistical inference, management control, cognitive and social psychology, and computer science. By focusing on decisions as the unit of analysis, decision science provides a unique framework for understanding public health problems, and for improving policies to address those problems. Decision science has been used in business and management, law and education, environmental regulation, military science, public health and public policy. CHDS uses decision analytic methods to inform policies and practices that improve population health by systematically integrating scientific evidence with explicit consideration of individual and societal values for outcomes such as mortality, quality of life, and costs.