Management Science Vol. 22 No. 9 1976
A Health Index for Patient Selection: A Value Function Approach with Application to Chronic Renal Failure Patients
Abstract
Concrete criteria are needed for patient selection for scarce medical treatments and ranking of patient urgency for, or salvageability by, a given form of treatment. The mathematical theory of multi-attribute value functions is employed to rank order chronic renal failure patients with regard to therapeutic expectations. Order-2 mutual preferential independence was observed, thus an additive value function was justified. The paper demonstrates two different procedures for assessing a value function over a discrete attribute. The proposed approach yields a rank ordering (health status index) consistent with the physician's preferences and judgment. It can be employed for any medical decision process, even when only weaker preferential independence properties apply.
- DOI
- 10.1287/mnsc.22.9.1009
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1009-1021
- Language
- en
- Sources
- bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref