FROM THE EDITOR
Brian Zikmund-Fisher, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
Ellen G. Engelhardt, PhD
Deputy Editor
by Brian Zikmund-Fisher , PhD; University of Michigan

The SMDM North American Meeting is just days away. I hope many of you will be joining me in Montreal, Canada. I’m especially looking forward to meeting and learning from the patient attendees that will be present this time. Take a look at the details about career development activities that will be occurring at the meeting provided in this issue by Tara Lavelle and Austin Nam .

The current issue of the SMDM Newsletter also includes a variety of interesting commentaries:
  • My discussion of the results of the Summer poll results on public engagement activities. It’s also clear that SMDM members do a lot to share their research more broadly, but it’s also clear that we have very mixed feelings about different specific activities. See what you think!
  • Torbjørn Wisloff (a self-described Twitter addict) shares his perspective about why academics should use that service more.
  • Beate Jahn announces the new SMDM-supported, interdisciplinary, Dementia Research Network and invites interested parties to consider joining.
  • Mark Liebow updating us on health policy news, including the approval (!) of budgets for many of the agencies which fund our work.

Continuing the focus on sharing SMDM work with different audiences, the Fall Scientific Issues in MDM Poll focuses on the question of open access publishing. Do you use open access journals, like our Medical Decision Making: Policy and Practice journal? Do you ever use the open access option in Medical Decision Making or other subscription-based journals? And what are the reasons that you either do or do not use such options? Given that these questions have been at the heart of many discussions both about the Society’s journals and in academia more broadly, we thought it would be good to learn what our members think about the issue. 
I also wanted to call out the recent announcement of the new SMDM Fellowship in Medical Decision Making . This amazing opportunity is an excellent way to continue the Society’s development of new talent and new ideas. Whether you are a potential fellow or a potential mentor, I hope you check it out!

See you in Montreal!

Brian
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Uwe Siebert,
MD, MPH, MSc, ScD
The Falling Leaves of Red and Gold
by Uwe Siebert, MD, MPH, MSc, ScD ; UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Austria, and Harvard University, USA

I hope you had a good transition from summer into fall. While I write this letter, I am listening to a variety of versions of the song “Autumn Leaves” to enhance my fall mood, “When autumn leaves start to fall …”

I associate fall with beautiful colors and harvesting - harvesting the fruits of our many months (or years) of hard work. If you are reaping the rewards of such dedicated work, then I hope you’re able to enjoy this moment to take stock of your achievements. If the end is nowhere in sight, then I hope the season’s many festivities will give you strength to persevere.

Speaking of the fruits of hard work, this was an amazing year for SMDM! Owing to the engagement of our members, the passionate work of our Board, the inspiring and well-attended meetings, and a successful fundraising campaign, the Society not only continues to impact decision makers and address important topics in health care, but also remains financially healthy and has managed to roll out exciting new initiatives.

I felt very honored and humbled to serve this wonderful Society as President. Some of my goals and hopes for this year were to help the different disciplines at SMDM to join forces, to support our ongoing internationalization process, and to expand our educational efforts to benefit our members, particularly those who lack the resources to attend our meetings. Over the last year, the Society has made amazing progress in all of these areas – even more than I expected.

Before highlighting some events and new initiatives, I would like to express my thanks to all members of our “SMDM family” who worked as passionate volunteers in different roles and committees, kept us on track with our strategic objectives, organized our annual meetings, and made SMDM more inclusive. They gave their various perspectives, their valuable advice, their tremendous experience, and many hours to the Society. Special thanks to Alan Schwartz as Editor of our Journals and to Brian Zikmund-Fisher and Ellen Engelhardt as Newsletter Editors. Further thanks and congratulations to our Executive Director Jill Metcalf for the successful fundraising and to Trevor Scholl and Lori Batista from the PMA team for their professional service. I would also like to convey a special thank you to all our outgoing Board members for their commitment to the Society: Past President Angie Fagerlin , Vice-President James Stahl , International Trustee Beate Jahn , Trustees Ava John-Baptiste and Jane Kim . Don’t worry; we will keep you busy with new tasks!

My personal and warmest thanks also go to the past and future presidential team Angie Fagerlin , Heather Gold , James Stahl and Beate Sander , as well as to Secretary-Treasurer Tasha Stout and Historian Robert Beck . Thanks to you, our work was a true example of leadership team work. Listening closely to your advice made my presidency not only easier but also brought us all together to the “next level”. It was a fantastic experience. I will miss you and I hope I can give part of this back to our Society.

One of the highlights, which met all our strategic goals, was the 17 th Biennial SMDM European Conference in Leiden. With this truly international meeting, we hit an all-time European record with more than 300 participants from 26 countries and all continents. The interdisciplinary sessions provided a great example of joining forces in SMDM, and the integration of patients moved forward - thanks to Anne Stiggelbout, Ewout Steyerberg & team .

When autumn leaves began to fall, there was a lot of excitement at our Society as we prepared to launch several new initiatives, which were part of the fundraising campaign under the leadership of Jill Metcalf. I want to acknowledge the dedication and teamwork of SMDM volunteers, members and staff, far too numerous to name here, who turned ideas that started with some version of, “Wouldn’t it be great if…,” and made them realities:

The overarching goal of this new fellowship funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is to build and support a cohort of future leaders with the skills to effectively apply decision science to research, practice and health policy. The Fellowship provides three years of support to clinical research fellows, doctoral candidates and post-doctoral fellows with a commitment to health decision sciences, and for whom lack of financial resources presents barriers to ongoing engagement in SMDM. The application deadline is December 17, 2018. Thanks go to Jill Metcalf, Ava John-Baptiste & team .

The goal of this Program funded by the Hess Foundation is to train physicians and other providers in effective doctor-patient communication and shared decision making. It will be launched and promoted during and following the Montreal Meeting. The idea of this Program grew out of numerous invitations from and conversations with meeting attendees and SMDM members who wanted to bring SMDM short courses to their home institutions or to other sites that would benefit from an introduction to or a continuing education in medical decision making. James Stahl, Hilary Bekker, Margaret Byrne, Beate Jahn, Jane Kim and Beate Sander are serving as the Oversight Committee members.

With the help of Beate Jahn and Jill Metcalf , SMDM initiated networking activities among SMDM members within the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Program. We are proud that we now have been invited to participate in a COST application initiated by SMDM member Javier Mar Medina and others . If you are interested in inviting SMDM to participate as an International Organization in a multi- and interdisciplinary COST Action proposal contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal knowledge advancement and development of Europe, please read further details in this newsletter.

These new initiatives simultaneously serve several of our strategic goals, including education, internationalization, collaboration, leadership, reaching new audiences, and further joining the disciplines and forces of SMDM. But we must not stop here – the work continues! I hope to see many more instances of SMDM turning these, “Wouldn’t it be great if…,” ideas into actual programs, or task forces, that will benefit our members and strengthen the field of medical decision making well into the future. If you would like to be involved in these initiatives, or have ideas for new projects, please see me or the other board members at the meeting, or send us an email.

We also moved on with our plan to create a Mobile and Online International & Educational Program. A pioneering group of SMDM members volunteered to provide material for core tutorials, which will be reached through an SMDM online curriculum website. Together with the Education Committee, the Publications Committee and the MDM Journal Editor, we also will discuss on how we can leverage potential synergies between our teaching efforts and publication channels.

Now, we are all looking forward to our 40 th Annual North American Meeting on October 13-17, 2018, in Montreal . With Meeting Chairs Holly Witteman , William Dale , and Patient Partners Isabel Jordan and Beverly Canin , we expect a meeting that not only joins forces and disciplines of SMDM through “Decision Making Across the Lifespan”, but also offers new insights from the Symposium “Indigenous Ways of Health Decision Making Across the Lifespan”.

I would like to welcome everyone to Montreal, and I can’t wait to see “the falling leaves of red and gold … “ of the Canadian maple trees.
COMMENTARY
The opinions stated in the following commentaries are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of the Society for Medical Decision Making.
Brian Zikmund-Fisher, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
SMDM Member Attitudes towards Public Engagement Activities: Findings from the Summer 2018 SMDM Poll
by Brian Zikmund-Fisher , PhD; SMDM e-newsletter Editor-in-Chief

The Scientific Issues in SMDM Poll for Summer 2018 focused on the ways that SMDM members have undertaken public engagement activities in the past, their interest in doing so in the future, and their thoughts on what SMDM can do to support public engagement by affiliated researchers. We received 78 responses (Thank you!), and the results are summarized below.

As Table 1 shows, two-third of respondents have responded to reporters at some point, and many have engaged in other forms of public engagement activities. What surprised me most, however, was the fact that relatively few respondents expressed specific desires to do more of these types of activities. This apparent hesitation suggests that our respondents perceive barriers to such actions.
Respondents did, however, express considerable interest in a variety of potential actions that SMDM might take in this area. Top vote getters included desire for opportunities to interact with journalists at SMDM meetings, a short course on working with journalists, and a short course on best practices for interfacing with advocates and policymakers. 
Lastly, I wanted to mention one question that asked respondents: “If an important new article or report that you have authored is about to be published, how likely are you to contact your institution's public relations team before its release to discuss possible dissemination activities?”

Responses on this question were remarkably split, with about half expressing some degree of likelihood of contacting their institution’s public relations team (25% very likely, 24% somewhat likely), 8% unsure, and the remainder stating that they were either somewhat unlikely (21%) or very unlikely (23%) to do so. To my surprise, this variable did NOT predict past activities or interest in SMDM actions related to public engagement – the distributions of responses were virtually identical among those who actively contact their institution’s public relations department versus those who do not.

So, what does this all mean for SMDM and our membership? I see two takeaway messages: First, many of us are doing different types of work that relate to sharing our work and our expertise with broader public audiences, and there is significant interest in different kinds of training at SMDM meetings to support such communications. However, the variety of responses to the question about contacting institutional public relations departments suggests that there are real differences in how SMDM members see their role in the process of communicating our science to public audiences.

The goal of the Scientific Issues in MDM polls is the to spark consideration and discussion among the SMDM membership about issues of interest. Given the critical need to ensure consideration of scientific evidence by both public and policymaking audiences at this moment in time (and always), I hope the data presented here can spark some reflection among SMDM leadership and our members about what our Society’s role should be in the public sphere.
Torbjørn Wisloff, PhD
Academic Use of Twitter - Some Suggestions from an Addict
by Torbjørn Wisloff , PhD; Norwegian Institute of Public Health

If you haven’t yet started using Twitter, I recommend you to. I was very late myself, but now that I have used it for about two years, I am really thankful for this wonderful tool. Some arguments:

We all have different ways of finding new research within our field. In my early career, I went regularly to the webpages of some journals or looked through the print versions we kept in our institution. The past years, subscribing to emails from a few journals has been my primary way of staying somewhat up-to-date. After starting with Twitter, however, I have become aware of many interesting publications I would never have found otherwise. If you are into health economics, a good suggestion is to follow @aheblog for weekly updates.

Another useful thing on Twitter is to follow a few editors. Some editors post their view on things that you as a researcher may not be thinking about. Getting a few good advice before your next manuscript submission may be the one thing you need to get your paper published in the right journal. Some editors may also add your Twitter-handle to the advertisement of the next journal issue. @PECjournal and @MedDecMak are my favorite journals on Twitter, but I am open for suggestions.

My last argument is most surely my favorite reason for being on Twitter; the discussions. If you follow a few people in your field you may sometimes stumble across or even participate in the most fruitful scientific discussions. It may be a clarifying short piece formulated excellently by a scholar on the other side of the globe, or it may be a cross-continental discussion among the brightest researchers within a field. Some recommendations here include the always well-articulated @EpiEllie and the more grumpy @f2harrell with some strong views on statistics.

And once in a while, a fellow SMDM-er may become a Twitter-star if the right thing is written at the right time. For instance, @AnkurFactorial tweeted a simple, but brilliant 6-word tweet that went viral in September…

Some tweet often, some seldom, some retweets what has been tweeted by others. This combination makes Twitter my favorite app in 2018, and possibly also in the coming years. Some other favorite work-related “Twitterers” include: @LittlerLabel, @VPplenarysesh, @hwitteman, @RitaNdeFaria, @McCabeC_IHE, our incoming president @HTGoldPhD, and of course our own @socmdm and @MedDecMak.

@TorbWis
Beate Jahn, PhD
Dementia Research Network - Join the SMDM Coordinated COST Funding Application
by Beate Jahn , PhD; UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics, and Technology, Austria

Dementias pose one of the greatest public health challenges due to the rapid aging of the population. They are one of the main causes of disability, loss of quality of life and institutionalization. SMDM supports setting up a network of interested researchers in the field of dementia. The network aims to bring together people working with population registries of dementia and developing tools for data mining and machine learning to enlighten burden of behavioural and psychological disorders in dementia. In future, the network will support developing and share tools and procedures for predictive models of dementia. Approaches such as machine learning could be studied in comparison with traditional statistical methods.
 
SMDM, as a transdisciplinary academic research society with international members and members throughout Europe, would welcome the chance to support network implementation and grant application for a COST network in the field of dementia research. The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) is the longest-running European framework supporting trans-national cooperation among researchers, engineers and scholars across Europe. Interested parties are invited to submit proposals for COST Actions contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal knowledge advancement and development of Europe. The COST call process is open year-round with the next round of proposals entering the evaluation process on 29 November 2018 . More information about the COST application process is available via infographic and here http://www.cost.eu/participate/open_call .
 
Researchers including scientists in their early career, researchers from less research-intensive countries across Europe, young talents and next generation leaders in science and international partner can get involved. Funding would cover various networking activities including workshops, travel expenses for scientific meetings, etc. Our grant application aims to bridge separate fields of science/disciplines to achieve breakthroughs that require an interdisciplinary approach benefiting from the broad range of disciplines represented at SMDM.
 
Researchers focusing on dementia that would like to join the COST network grant application please contact Javier Mar Medina ( FRANCISCOJAVIER.MARMEDINA@osakidetza.eus ) or Beate Jahn ( Beate.Jahn@umit.at ). Please contact SMDM President Uwe Siebert at Uwe.Siebert@umit.at or Executive Director Jill Metcalf at jill.metcalf@smdm.org if you would like to further discuss other networking opportunities.
Mark Liebow,
MD, MPH
(Most of) U.S. Appropriations Bills Pass On Time For Once
by Mark Liebow , MD, MPH; Mayo Clinic

Congress must have thought the Mueller investigation and the Kavanaugh nomination were enough drama for Washington this summer so it, rather quietly, passed most of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Appropriations bills (along with a continuing resolution to cover the rest of the government) in time for President Trump to sign them in September before FY 2019 began.

Among the bills that passed was the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education bill that funds most of the agencies SMDMers are interested in. This is the first time in over a dozen years that bill passed before the end of the fiscal year. It’s usually one of the hardest bills to pass, because it often has controversial policy provisions attached to it. This year appropriators worked hard to keep controversial policy provisions out of the bill and it passed easily and with strong bipartisan support.

Congress rejected the Trump administration’s attempts to cut funding for research agencies. The National Institutes of Health will get $2 billion more than in this fiscal year, a 5.4% increase. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality got $4 million more, 1.2% more.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will get $7.9 billion, $354 million less than in this fiscal year, a 4.4% decrease. However, there was a lot of money for facilities in the FY 2018 appropriations bill, so the CDC will get $126 million more for program operations than last year. The VA Medical Prosthetics and Research Program will get an increase of over $100 million to $779 million and the VA will get $1.1 billion for its new electronic health record.

The advantage of getting appropriations done on time is that agency leadership knows what the agency will be getting for the year at the beginning of the year. They can make commitments to grantees with confidence and don’t have to hold back money against the risk their final budget will be less than in the amount in a continuing resolution.

Robert Wilkie, who was already the Acting Secretary, was confirmed as the Secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs late in July, the only major recent leadership action in Federal agencies relevant to SMDM.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 Senate seats are up for election November 6. It’s quite possible party control will change in the House and possible it will change in the Senate. We’ll have the election results and their implications in the next issue. 
MEETING NEWS
Join Us in Montreal for the
2018 Annual Meeting!
Meeting co-chairs: Holly Witteman , PhD; William Dale , MD, PhD; Isabel Jordan , Parent/Patient Partner and Beverly Canin , Patient Partner

This year's Annual Meeting will be held from October 13 - 17, 2018 at the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, QC, Canada. Registration is still open! 

For more than four decades, SMDM members have sought to improve the health care experiences and health of people at every stage of life. There are differences in the health issues confronting people at different life stages, and there are also commonalities bridging different stages. As SMDM reaches middle age and looks ahead to the next 40 years and beyond, the 2018 Annual Meeting will bring together patients, families, health professionals, policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders to discuss the latest evidence about making better decisions for better health. The 40th Annual Meeting will be a Patients Included ™ meeting, where patients will be in attendance and will appear as presenters. 

The Keynote speaker is Monica E. Peek , MD, MPH, MSc. Dr. Peek will give the Keynote Address on Monday, October 15 at 8:30 AM on How Structural Inequities Impact Health Disparities Across the Lifespan: Lessons for Medical Decision Making. 

Visit the 40th Annual Meeting Homepage or download the free SMDM Annual Meeting mobile app for more information.

We look forward to seeing you in Montreal next week!
#SMDM18 #PatientsIncluded
Tara Lavelle, PhD
Austin Nam,
PhD Candidate
Career Development Activities at the
40th Annual Meeting
by 2018 Career Development Committee Co-Chairs
Tara Lavelle, PhD and Austin Nam , PhD Candidate

The SMDM Career Development Committee is excited to offer a range of activities at the Annual Meeting!

Dinners with Experts
We invite you to attend informal group dinners hosted by senior members of the Society on Sunday, October 14 and Tuesday, October 16. The dinners are self-pay. 
Trainee Luncheon
Sunday, October 14, 2018: 12:30 – 2:00 PM

This lunch is a great opportunity for trainees and senior members of SMDM to meet and talk informally with each other. Back for a third year, is the “speed mentoring” event where trainees will meet with several different mentors in small groups. Sign up for the lunch with meeting registration. The cost is $5 USD for trainees to attend.

CV and Job Book
Are you on the job market? Are you hiring? The CV/Job book will be made available via e-mail, SMDM Connect, and through the meeting app.

Career Development Workshop
Tuesday, October 16, 2018: 12:00 – 1:00 PM

This workshop is a new feature this year! Trainees: bring your CV, cover letter, or any other job market materials and get constructive feedback on preparing for the job market from our friendly mentors! You can also practice and fine-tune your elevator pitch to have a succinct introduction of yourself ready for your job search. This session is free to attend; however, registration is required. Sign up for the workshop with meeting registration.

Career Development Panel: Learning from Failure
Tuesday, October 16, 2018: 1:00 – 2:00 PM

The panel will bring together SMDM members that are in various stages in their career to discuss the inevitable ups and downs of their careers, and how their “failures” have helped them succeed. We are fortunate that Angie Fagerlin, PhD has agreed to moderate this panel, which will include a brief discussion with the panelists, followed by an open question and answer session.

Panelists: Rebecca Delaney, PhD (postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Utah), Steven Kymes, PhD (Director of Health Economics and Outcomes Research at Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals), Milton C. Weinstein, PhD (Henry J. Kaiser Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health).
Please contact Tara Lavelle ( tlavelle@tuftsmedicalcenter.org ) or Austin Nam ( austin.nam@mail.utoronto.ca ) with any questions.
SOCIETY NEWS
SMDM Fellowship in Medical Decision Making

The overarching goal of the SMDM Fellowship in Medical Decision Making is to build a cohort of future leaders with the skills to effectively apply decision science to research, to practice and to health policy.

The Fellowship provides three years of support to clinical research fellows, doctoral candidates and post-doctoral fellows with a proven commitment to decision sciences and for whom a lack of financial resources presents barriers for ongoing engagement in SMDM.

The Fellowship application is now open. The deadline to apply is Monday, December 17, 2018 at 11:59 PM ET.
The SMDM Fellowship is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
SMDM Courses and Trainings are Now Available Onsite!

SMDM is often invited to offer the high-quality courses and symposia we offer at our annual meetings as onsite trainings for clinicians, researchers and other stakeholders who are unable to attend SMDM meetings. While we have been able to respond to some requests, we have had to decline a number of offers. But not anymore!

Announcing SMDM Onsite Trainings ! SMDM is now able to offer our trainings in settings that are convenient for those who are unable to attend SMDM meetings.

For more information about coordinating SMDM onsite courses and speakers for panels and symposia please contact Jill Metcalf jill.metcalf@smdm.org .

This program is supported by funding from the Hess Foundation.
2018 SMDM Awards
SMDM is pleased to announce the winners of its 2018 Awards:
Pictured above
(l to r): Myriam Hunink, Murray Krahn, Lisa Prosser, Jarrod Dalton

The   Career Achievement Award  recognizes distinguished senior investigators who have made significant contributions to the field of medical decision making. The 2018 recipient is  Myriam Hunink, MD, PhD.
 
The   SMDM Award for Distinguished Service  recognizes service to SMDM in terms of leadership, role in the operations of the Society, and contributions to the scientific and educational activities of the Society. The 2018 recipient is Murray Krahn, MD, MSc, FRCPC.
 
The   John M. Eisenberg Award for Practical Application of Medical Decision Making Research  recognizes an individual or organization that has demonstrated sustained leadership in translating medical decision making research into practice, and that has taken exceptional steps to communicate the principles and/or substantive findings of medical decision making research to policy makers, to clinical decision makers, and to the general public. The 2018 recipient is  Lisa Prosser, PhD.
 
The   Young Investigator Award  is presented annually for the best paper published by a trainee or junior faculty member.  Jarrod Dalton, PhD  is the 2018 recipient.

These individuals will be honored at the upcoming meeting in Montreal. Please join us in congratulating all of the winners and thanking the Awards Committee for its work.
2018 - 2019 Officers and Trustees
Congratulations to the newly elected Officers and Trustees of the Society for Medical Decision Making!
Pictured above: Top row from left to right:
President-Elect: Lisa Prosser, PhD
Vice President-Elect: Mary Politi, PhD
Secretary-Treasurer Elect: Ava John-Baptiste, PhD

Pictured above: Bottom row from left to right:
Trustees: Fernando Alarid-Escudero , PhD; Esther de Bekker-Grob , PhD;
Victoria Shaffer , PhD

Thank you to everyone who voted and especially to those who were willing to serve. Your contributions make the Society stronger! Please feel free to reach out to our new slate of Officers and Trustees to welcome them and become more involved in the Society's activities.
SMDM at the 2018 I-HOPE Study Meeting

SMDM member Negin Hajizadeh , MD, MPH, represented SMDM at a recent 2-day meeting convened by the I-HOPE Study to define a research agenda to improve the outcomes and care experiences of hospitalized patients, and their families and caregivers. The meeting involved over 45 stakeholders representing patient and professional organizations – including the IPFCC. Over the two days, stakeholders prioritized 11 questions (from almost 800 submissions) and final results will be disseminated soon. Learn more details about the study or contact  i-Hope@uthscsa.edu for more information.
MEMBER NEWS
Latest News From Your Fellow Members
Elizabeth Schoenfeld , MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Delivery and Population Science, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School - Baystate, just received a K08 from AHRQ for a project entitled, "Shared Decision-Making for the promotion of patient-centered imaging in the Emergency Department: Suspected Kidney Stones". ( ElizSchoen@gmail.com )
Laurent Metz , MD, MBA, has been appointed Global Lead of Health Economics, Market Access and Outcome Research at Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health. ( lmetz@its.jnj.com )
Jolanda Meeuwissen , MSc, Trimbos Institute, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, and colleagues recently published in the Journal of Affective Disorders a study on the cost-utility of stepped-care algorithms according to depression guideline recommendations . Their state-transition model analysis showed that it is highly likely that guideline-congruent stepped care for major depressive disorder is cost-effective compared to usual care. The findings support current Dutch guideline recommendations.

This study is part of Jolanda’s PhD thesis “The case for stepped care. Exploring the applicability and cost-utility of stepped-care strategies in the management of depression”, which she will defend publicly on November 7, 2018 at the VU University, Amsterdam. ( jmeeuwissen@trimbos.nl )
2018 Tufts-CEVR’s Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Paper of the Year Award

The Tufts Medical Center’s Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR) is proud to announce its inaugural Tufts-CEVR Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) Paper of the Year Award . This award will highlight important CEA research and promote findings to a broad audience.

Criteria:
We will consider any original, applied CEA in the fields of health and medicine published in 2018 that reports results in terms of incremental cost-per-QALY gained.

We will judge articles based on:
1. Timeliness and importance
2. Methodological quality
3. Potential influence on policy or clinical decision making

Editorials, commentaries, letters, point/counter-points, scientific reports, and economic analyses reporting endpoints other than cost-per-QALY will not be considered.

Selection Process:
CEVR will accept nominations through January 31, 2019. Anyone – including the authors themselves or any institution, can nominate a paper. CEVR faculty and staff will select five finalists from among these submissions, and our CEA Registry Advisory Board (comprised of individuals from the life sciences industry, payers, academia, and government) will select the winner, which will be announced in June of 2019. The first author of the winning paper will receive an award of $1,000.

Submission:
To submit an article, please email Tara Lavelle, PhD at cearegistry@tuftsmedicalcenter.org by January 31, 2019.
Good medical decision making starts from correct clinical reasoning. Alas, this discipline is almost taught nowhere. Why? Because most clinicians consider this is an innate ‘private’ talent, that should not be challenged. And alas clinical decision making is a branch almost forgotten in SMDM, drowned by attention given to economic aspects of medicine.
Almost twenty years ago, stimulated by the works by Sacket, Kassirer and Pauker, we started teaching clinical reasoning in a few Belgian (Flemish) universities. Last year, we became aware of the need for a standard book. A group of professors, directed by Jef Van den Ende , MD, PhD, Faculty of Health Sciences at University Antwerp, brought together ideas about teaching clinical reasoning.

The book builds on the dual reasoning systems of Kahneman and Tversky , giving a large podium to heuristics and biases. Bayes theorem is explained in a simple, almost non mathematical way, using a logodds scale and a clinician’s language. A lot of attention is given to the Pauker and Kassirer threshold theory. Finally, discussion of a variety of clinical pitfalls close the book.

It is intended for students, teachers and clinicians. It is published in Dutch, with a Bahasa Indonesia and Spanish version almost ready. An English translation makes little sense, given the excellent and still actual book on clinical reasoning by J. Kassirer.
Dawn Fairlie , PhD, NP, had an article entitled, Specific Words and Experience Matter to Surrogates When Making End of Life Decisions , published recently in the Health Communication journal. ( Dawn.Fairlie@csi.cuny.edu )
What Are You Working On?
Connect and collaborate with your fellow members on their latest projects:

Rich Martin, MD, MA, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine ( martin@mi-arthritis.com )

I continue to work on development and implementation of decision aids in clinical rheumatology practice.

Our group had clinical and policy significant open access publication in Medical Decision Making “ Comparison of the Effects of a Pharmaceutical Industry Decision Guide and Decision Aids on Patient Choice to Intensify Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis “ in the summer of 2017.

Two decision aid evangelistic out reaches have included:

1. I co-produced the Medscape program: “Psoriatic Arthritis: Understanding Patient Perspectives and Providing Patient Centered Care”. This has had 6600 registered participants.

2. I’m co-producing and will lead a American College of Rheumatology related Workshop in Chicago 10/2018 on “Shared Decision Making as a Strategy to Increase Patient Engagement and Achieve Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment Targets.”
Student News
Congratulations to our upcoming graduates!

K.D. Valentine , PhD in Qualitative Psychology

Degree/Graduation Date: May 2019
Area: Qualitative Psychology
Position Seeking: Any
Advisor: Victoria Shaffer, PhD

Dissertation Title: Development of a Scale for Evaluating Screening Tests for Cancer:
Attributes Patients Emphasize (ESCAPE)

Presented at SMDM Annual Meeting: 
Development of the Cancer Screening Preferences Questionnaire (2017)
Uncertainty and Cognitive Biases in Hypothetical Medical Decisions (2016)
Interest in Cancer Screenings Tests That Lack Benefit (2015)

Short Courses attended at the SMDM Annual Meeting:
Stated-Preference Methods: Design, Analysis, and Interpretation (2017)

SMDM Interest Group Participation:
Decision Psychology Interest Group

OTHER NEWS
The Advanced Research Institute (ARI) provides career mentoring and grant writing guidance to early career investigators conducting research related to Mental Health & Aging. Scholars are typically preparing R01 (or equivalent) applications; the range of research spans the translational spectrum.

Applications are due November 16, 2018. Please contact Renee Pepin ( Renee.L.Pepin@dartmouth.edu ) or Martha Livingston Bruce ( mbruce@dartmouth.edu ) with questions about the program or their eligibility.
JOB POSTINGS
Here are the most recent job opportunities since our last newsletter. SMDM members can stay current on the newest opportunities in the Resources Section of SMDM Connect .
2018 ANNUAL FUND GIVING
The SMDM Lifetime Contributors list acknowledges the SMDM members who have made contributions to the Annual Fund and acknowledges donations and in-kind donations, received from October 2005 - October 2, 2018. Our heartfelt appreciation goes out to everyone who has supported our Society!
EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
University of Michigan
Deputy Editor
Netherlands Cancer Institute