Abstract
A characteristic of medical care supply is the degree of freedom in choice of technique open to the supplier, normally a physician, within the limits or physical availabilities by place and by time in relation to the patient. In view of the rapidly increasing volume of alternative technologies in general, and of information on a patient’s condition in particular cases, the clinical evaluation of therapies (efficacy) is urgently required with respect to resources applied (efficiency) and to the resultant health outcome (effectiveness), Health outcomes are not thereby rendered commensurate and remain, in practice, selected by the physician, whose clinical freedom is nevertheless guided towards a cost minimand suitable for a National Health Service-type system.
Acknowledgment is made of discussion with Dr A. E. Bennett, Director of the Health Services Evaluation Group in the Department of the Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford, to Mr David Pole, Dr G. K. Matthew, Dr John Evans and Mr L. B. Hudson of the Department of Health and Social Security, and to A. Creese, Pembroke College, Oxford. A preliminary version of sections of this paper was presented to the Working Group on Evaluation of Public Health Programmes of the European Office of the World Health Organization, Slunchev Bryag, Bulgaria, 29 Aug–1 Sep 1972.
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© 1974 The International Economic Association
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Kaser, M. (1974). Choice of Technique. In: Perlman, M. (eds) The Economics of Health and Medical Care. International Economic Association Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-63660-0_25
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