Health resource allocation decisions

Christine Muller


Abstract

Scarcity in the field of medicine is a fact.  There are only so many
doctors, so many treatment centers, and only so much money to pay for
services. Rationing, to date, has occurred "...non-systematically,
i.e. decisions about who gets treated and when is taken in an
uncoordinated way by an individual, or groups of doctors". (Oberman
and Buck, 2001).  If medical rationing is to become more systematic,
then the question becomes, according to what rules should rationing
take place?
 
A variety of social factors have been identified by researchers as
influential in judgments about what patient groups are more worthy of
treatment compared to other groups.  This week's brownbag will review
the factors that individuals consider when making health resource
allocation decisions, review different rules that can be used to make
these allocation decisions, posit research questions and outline
potential experimental designs.