Evaluating the Application of Decision Analysis Methods in Simulated Alternatives Assessment Case Studies: Potential Benefits and Challenges of Using MCDA.

We compare how several forms of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) can enhance the practice of alternatives assessment (AA). We report on a workshop in which 12 practitioners from US corporations, government agencies, NGOs, and consulting organizations applied different MCDA techniques to 3 AA case studies to understand how they improved the decision process. Participants were asked to select a preferred alternative in each case using a different decision analysis approach: their unaided decision-making method, individual or lightly facilitated group multiattribute value theory (MAVT), and more extensively facilitated group structured decision making (SDM).

Managing Safety-Related Disruptions: Evidence from the U.S. Nuclear Power Industry.

Low-probability, high-impact events are difficult to manage. Firms may underinvest in risk assessments for low-probability, high-impact events because it is not easy to link the direct and indirect benefits of doing so. Scholarly research on the effectiveness of programs aimed at reducing such events faces the same challenge.

Advancing Alternative Analysis: Integration of Decision Science.

Background: Decision analysis-a systematic approach to solving complex problems-offers tools and frameworks to support decision making that are increasingly being applied to environmental challenges. Alternatives analysis is a method used in regulation and product design to identify, compare, and evaluate the safety and viability of potential substitutes for hazardous chemicals.

Objectives: We assessed whether decision science may assist the alternatives analysis decision maker in comparing alternatives across a range of metrics.

Associations between organizational characteristics and quality improvement activities of clinics participating in a quality improvement collaborative.

Background: Few studies have rigorously evaluated the associations between organizational characteristics and intervention activities of health care organizations participating in quality improvement collaboratives (QICs).

Objective: To examine the relationship between clinic characteristics and intervention activities by primary care clinics that provide HIV care and that participated in a QIC.

Design: Cross-sectional study of Ryan White CARE Act (now called Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act) funded clinics that participated in a QIC over 16 months in 2000 and 2001.