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Every day, in hospitals and clinics worldwide, healthcare providers have to somehow make decisions in treatment that balance risks and rewards and try to save lives. Additionally, funding for expansion, drug research and trials, and even where to place healthcare services are decisions whose long-term effects dictate which people are able to be seen and treated. But how are these decisions made? How can people reach conclusions with lives hanging in the balance and feel like those decisions are measured and considered appropriately when practicing medicine itself can feel unpredictable? This book demystifies the decision-making process by explaining the various formulas and methodologies used to determine which conditions to treat, which side effects to live with, and which emergencies receive priority treatment.
This book is focused primarily on facts and figures, and while the technical details may be above the layperson’s head, the core concept is something that many people will be curious about. Considering factors like mobility, pain, anxiety, self-reliance, and self-care, the data that determines the Quality-Adjusted Life Year, or QALY, can make sense to even those outside the healthcare industry. Pulling back the curtain on some of the decisions and deliberations that happen beyond the relationship between doctor and patient, this book doesn’t oversimplify the thought process behind those choices but also doesn’t over-explain or redundantly revisit the same topic. That brevity and focus turn a rather complex and foreign topic into something that readers can learn about and understand, even without any real prior knowledge of the subject. Taking a complex subject in health valuation and making it understood by professionals, students, patients, or even just the curious, this book helps explain a process that makes many feel helpless or non-collaborative, providing understanding and even relief.