Table 1.

The decision identification and classification taxonomy for use in medicine

	Topical category	Category description	Example of statement conveying a decision
1	Gathering additional information	Decision to obtain information from other source than patient interview, physical examination and patient chart; ordering new tests/diagnostic procedures for the patient, actively seeking external information from other party (other hospital, general practitioner, family member and so on) or discussing patient with other physician or healthcare personnel.	‘I am going to order an MRI of your skeleton’.
2	Evaluating test result	Simple, normative assessments of clinical findings and tests.	‘Your blood pressure is high. 180/100 is high’.
3	Defining problem	Complex, interpretative assessments that defines what the problem is and reflects a medically informed conclusion, thereby being either a diagnostic conclusion, an evaluation of state of health, an aetiological inference or a prognostic judgement.	‘This is basically what we call osteoarthritis’.
4	Drug related	Decision to start, refrain from, stop, alter or maintain a drug regimen.	‘I will give you a four day treatment of dexametasone’.
5	Therapeutic procedure related	Decision to intervene on a medical problem, plan, perform or refrain from therapeutic procedures of a medical nature.	‘We cannot operate more on you’.
6	Legal and insurance related	Medical decision concerning the patient, which is based on or restricted by a legal regulation or financial arrangements.	‘I will write you a sick leave note’.
7	Contact related	Decision regarding admittance or discharge from hospital, scheduling of control and referral to other part of the healthcare system.	‘She is so weak that she should be admitted’.
8	Advice and precaution	Decision to give the patient advice or precaution, thereby transferring responsibility for action from provider to patient.	‘You should stop smoking completely’.
9	Treatment goal	Decision to set defined goal for treatment and thereby being more specific than giving advice.	‘We want to get the A1c down between 7 and 8’.
10	Deferment	Decision to actively delay decision or a rejection to decide on problem presented by patient.	‘You have to discuss this with your family doctor’.

	Temporal category	Category description	Example of statement conveying a decision
A	Preformed	Decisions that have already been made and are brought into the encounter by the physician as information.	‘We have started you on some anticoagulants’.
B	Here-and-now	Decisions made in the present	‘I will get an ultrasound of your leg tonight’.
C	Conditional	Decisions prescribing future actions given a certain course of events	‘If the pills don’t alleviate your pain, you may double the dosage’.