Society for Medical Decision Making

Expert researchers, clinicians, and trainees from health economics, biostatistics, psychology, epidemiology, and other health-related disciplines gathered in Pittsburgh for the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) 39th Annual North American Meeting.

575 attendees attended the four-day event, which included a plethora of workshops, panels, and presentations on medical decision making, with a focus on “Better Decisions through Better Data Processes.”

The meeting co-chairs Dr. Kenneth Smith and Dr. Janel Hanmer provided a warm welcome to attendees on the Monday morning as they opened the meeting.

Kathleen Sebelius, who served in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet as the 21st Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was this year’s Keynote Speaker. Ms. Sebelius is perhaps best known for her work to pass and implement the Affordable Care Act.

At SMDM 2017, awards were presented to key leaders and mentors in the field of medical decision making: Dr. Uwe Siebert received the SMDM Award for Distinguished Service; Dr. Gillian Sanders-Schmidler received the John M. Eisenberg Award for Practical Application of Medical Decision Making Research; and Dr. Valerie Reyna received the SMDM Career Achievement Award.

Outstanding Paper by a Young Investigator was awarded to two deserving co-recipients, Dr. Phuc Le and Dr. Ellen Engelhardt. 10 trainees received the Lee B. Lusted Finalists Student Prize for outstanding presentations of research. The Lusted Student Award for Decision Psychology and Shared Decision Making was re-named this year in honor of a distinguished member of the SMDM community, Dr. Margaret Holmes-Rovner.

Past President Dr. Angie Fagerlin “passed the gavel” to incoming President Dr. Uwe Siebert at the SMDM Annual Business Meeting.

SMDM will host two meetings in 2018. The 17th Biennial European Conference will take place in Leiden, The Netherlands, from June 10 – 12, 2018 and the 40th Annual North American Meeting will take place in Montreal, Canada from October 14-17, 2018. We look forward to seeing you at SMDM meetings in 2018!