TY  - JOUR
T1  - TO best was always to worst, but worse is better, if good and bad are relevant-reply
AU  - Phelps DL, Phelps CE
Y1  - 1989/07/14
N1  - 10.1001/jama.1989.03430020052024
JO  - JAMA
SP  - 210
EP  - 210
VL  - 262
IS  - 2
N2  - In Reply. — 
    The decision to respond to a letter such as that from Dr Banzhaf from "SPELL" represents a complicated problem. Decision theory provides a framework to analyze this problem, as it has for other complicated decisions.Methods. — 
    We have constructed a decision tree with five branches: (1) ignore the letter completely (IGNORE); (2) admit our error, grovel, and beg for forgiveness (GROVEL); (3) withdraw the article in shame (WITHDRAW); (4) resign our faculty positions at the University of Rochester in disgrace (RESIGN); and (5) compose a tongue-incheek reply indicating how minor we considered SPELL's grammatical concerns (RAILLERY).Each branch of the tree had several possible outcomes, each with differing probability of occurrence. Probability estimates were obtained by DELPHI techniques using colleagues familiar with medical decision theory. Each outcome included the effects on the number of infants' eyes treated correctly by ophthalmologists (weight = 99), the longrun effect on
SN  - 0098-7484
M3  - doi: 10.1001/jama.1989.03430020052024
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1989.03430020052024
ER  -