Interactive Decisions from CBSSM


By clicking on an interactive decision, you can get hands-on experience with CBSSM's innovative research in behavioral health and medical decision making. Each scenario turns a recent research finding into a decision that a patient or a policy maker might face.

In our interactive decisions, we:
  • replicate actual research surveys
  • display alternative graphical representations of health risks
  • present choices in bioethics
  • explore emotions related to health
  • and much more.

Clinical topics range widely and have included paraplegia, renal disease, immunization, infertility, HIV/AIDS, cancer, women's health, organ transplants, and colostomy.

CBSSM's interactive decisions can be controversial, but they're always stimulating. Read, decide, click - and get a full commentary on the implications of your decisions!

A full archive of our interactive decisions can be found here.

The CBSSM interactive Decision of the Month:

The novelty of risk and vaccination intentions

It's 2009.  Early in the year, a 9-year-old girl from California became the first person with a confirmed case of H1N1 ("swine") influenza in the United States.  Shortly thereafter, the U.S. declared a public health emergency and the World Health Organization declared a phase 6 pandemic (the highest level possible).  By September 2009 a vaccination was developed and was available within a month.

You've been following the news about the H1N1 influenza as developments have unfolded throughout the year, and you feel some concern.  You have been wondering about the risk of coming down with the H1N1 flu yourself and have been thinking about whether you should be vaccinated.  Answer the following questions by moving the slider bar.

Informed Consent Document Utilization

What do subjects need to know in order to agree to participate in research?  An informed consent document is assumed to communicate the essential information, but it is not clear how carefully research participants read these documents.

How Risky are “High Risk” Kidneys?

The government requires that potential kidney transplant recipients be informed if an organ donor engaged in CDC categorized “high-risk” behaviors. Are these “high risk” donor kidneys associated with worse survival rates following transplantation? Does this label “high risk” result in usable kidneys being discarded?