Overview
- Basic chapters on MDM tools and expected utility theory appeal to students of both medicine and economics
- A comprehensive text on MDM under uncertainty for economists and physicians alike 54 illustrations, 18 boxes and further illustrative materials help the reader to grasp complex issues 31
- Exercises and references for each chapter provide the opportunity to delve further into the subject matter
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This textbook offers a comprehensive theory of medical decision making under uncertainty, combining informative test theory with the expected utility hypothesis. The book shows how the parameters of Bayes’ theorem can be combined with a value function of health states to arrive at informed test and treatment decisions. The authors distinguish between risk neutral, risk averse and prudent decision makers and demonstrate the effects of risk preferences on physicians’ decisions. They analyze individual tests, multiple tests and endogenous tests where the test result is determined by the decision maker. Finally, the topic is examined in the context of health economics by introducing a trade-off between enjoying health and consuming other goods, so that the extent of treatment and thus the potential improvement in the patient’s health become endogenous.
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Prof. Dr. Stefan Felder holds the Chair of Health Economics at the Economics Department of the Duisburg-Essen University. He studied economics and sociology, received his Ph.D. and his venia docendi from the University of Bern. He worked and taught at the University of Western Ontario (1990/92), University of Zurich (1992/1996) and University of Fribourg (1993/95) before joining the Faculties of Medicine and Economics at the University of Magdeburg in 1997. He currently is the general secretary of the German Association of Health Economics. From 2011, he will take over the Endowed Chair of Health Economics at the University of Basel, Switzerland.
Thomas Mayrhofer is a Research Associate in the Doctoral Program in Economics at the Chair of Health Economics, University Duisburg-Essen.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Medical Decision Making
Book Subtitle: A Health Economic Primer
Authors: Stefan Felder, Thomas Mayrhofer
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18330-0
Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg
eBook Packages: Business and Economics, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-642-18329-4Published: 22 July 2011
eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-18330-0Published: 22 July 2011
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 200
Topics: Health Economics, Epidemiology, Medicine/Public Health, general