Objective: To quantify preferences that ulcerative colitis (UC) patients place on treatment attributes when making therapy choices. Methods: A telephonic survey of patients with UC>18 years old who requested information from the website www.LivingWithUC.com from January to April 2006. Patients were presented with nine factors that might impact a UC patient's decision-making process regarding whether to use a biologic medication such as infliximab. A discreet choice methodology was employed using a complete block design, which presented 9 factors being tested in 36 discreet pairs and patients were asked to select the more important factor from each pair presented. Results: A total of 427 UC patients were contacted to get 294 completed interviews. The median age was 50 years and 204 (69.4%) were female. Of respondents currently on medication, 71% indicated their symptoms were under control and 75% of these respondents were experiencing ³2 flares per year. One third (34%) of respondents classified their UC as being moderate to severe. When asked about treatment options presented by their doctor, 42% had discussed surgery and 18% said doctors indicated surgery was a cure for UC. Half (50%) recalled their doctor presenting only one drug option, and of those presented with several options, 20% recall the physician emphasizing a particular drug. Respondents indicated healing the damage of the intestinal lining (74%) and avoiding surgery (73%) were important characteristics when deciding to use a product like infliximab to treat UC. Method of administration (23%) and cost of co-pay (19%) were given least importance. Conclusion: While doctors may focus on surgery as a cure for UC, patients in this study state healing intestinal damage and avoiding surgery would be their most important reasons to use a medication. Doctors and patients may need to discuss a wider variety of therapeutic options for treating UC before surgery is considered.