The assessment of values in medical decision making

Individuals, families, and health care providers consider medical treatment decisions ill light of their respective values about life in varying states of health. The clarification of health rare values is important not only in the context of everyday clinical decision making, but also for advance care planning and the resolution of ethical dilemmas. This article argues that objective assesment tools may facilitate the process of clarifying and communicating health care values in these contexts. The article reviews arguments for the importance of values assessment in health care planning methods used to date for health care values assessment, conceptual and methodological challenges for the measurement of health care values, and lessons learned through the process of developing and piloting a Health Care Values Survey. Objective values assessment tools appear useful for eliciting health care values, although multiple challenges for reliable, valid and clinically useful measurement of values are identified.