What is an effective strategy for making good healthcare decisions?

Whether making a healthcare decision or other important life decision, there are several proven strategies to assist you in the process.  Your first task should be to consider your biases.  Decision making should be as objective as possible.  Identifying your biases will help you make a more educated decision.  You should then create a pros and cons list.  For each pro and con, you should also consider the weight of that item.  For example, the...

Whether making a healthcare decision or other important life decision, there are several proven strategies to assist you in the process.  Your first task should be to consider your biases.  Decision making should be as objective as possible.  Identifying your biases will help you make a more educated decision.  You should then create a pros and cons list.  For each pro and con, you should also consider the weight of that item.  For example, the cost of a medical treatment may be just one con on the list, but if the amount is unattainable, the cost should be a major consideration.   You may even want to create a point system to account for the importance of certain components of the decision.  When looking at the pros and cons, you can also strip them down to the most important categories.  This strategy will help you narrow down your choices.  Another helpful strategy is to consider the advice you would give a friend.  We often struggle to make decisions ourselves but can clearly see the right choice when advising someone else.  Your next step should be to imagine enacting your decision options.  Do you feel good about the outcome?  Sometimes the choice is clear after visualizing the decision.  And finally, after you make the decision, you always want to go back and assess your choice.  If you are not happy with the outcome, you can always take another path.  When making health care decisions, it is always important to continually evaluate and consider any new information received from research.