An Introduction to CBDSM

The Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine (CBDSM) bridges social science disciplines and medical specialties, conducting interdisciplinary research in areas including

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  • clinical decision making
  • cognition and motivation
  • ethics in health care and in research
  • health communication and education
  • psychology in health policy
  • risk communication and perception
  • utility and survey methods

Under the joint sponsorship of the University of Michigan Medical School and the Ann Arbor VA Health Services Research and Development, CBDSM is a home for researchers with multiple perspectives on health decision making and behavior.

Our team includes

  • social and cognitive psychologists
  • behavioral economists
  • clinicians from many specialties
  • bioethicists
  • decision scientists
  • survey methodologists
  • public health researchers

A key goal of CBDSM is training the next generation of interdisciplinary researchers, offering support to junior investigators, especially through our Pre-Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Fellows Program, led by Angela Fagerlin, PhD.

The Internet Survey Lab at CBDSM, directed by Brian Zikmund-Fisher, PhD, facilitates the programming of complex experimental designs, using the graphical and interactive capabilities of the Internet.

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At CBDSM, we perform the basic and applied scientific research that will improve health care policy and practice, to benefit patients and their families, health care providers, third-party payers, policy makers, and the general public. In our Decision of the Month web feature, we turn a recent research finding into an interactive decision that a patient or a policy maker might face. Read, decide, click--and see how your answers compare with those collected in national research surveys.

Thank you for visiting our website! Learn more about CBDSM at one of our Bioethics/CBDSM Seminars, the first Wednesdays and third Thursdays of September through June, at the North Ingalls Building on the main campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Or drop in on one of our topic-focused Research Groups. 

Please contact us with any questions you may have.