Models of the medical consultation: opportunities and limitations of a game theory perspective.
The medical consultation is best understood as a two-way social interaction involving interactive decision making. Game theory--a theory based on assumptions of rational choice and focusing on interactive decision making--has the potential to provide models of the consultation that can be used to generate empirically testable predictions about the factors that promote quality of care. Three different game structures--the Prisoner's Dilemma game, the Assurance game, and the Centipede game--all provide insights into the possible underlying dynamics of the doctor-patient interaction. Further empirical work is needed to uncover the underlying game structures that occur most commonly in medical consultations. Game theory has the potential to provide a new conceptual and theoretical basis for future empirical work on the interaction between doctors and their patients.
Tarrant
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Division of General Practice and Primary Health Care, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Gwendolen Road, Leicester LE5 4PW, UK. ccp3@le.ac.uk
Stokes
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Colman
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D005716:Game Theory; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012017:Referral and Consultation