[Benefit and benefit assessment].
The term value denotes the effect(s) of an intervention which will improve, by more than just a little, prognosis and/or symptoms and/or quality of life of the patient. The value of a medical intervention has to be assessed in a way that the patient can be adequately informed and believable promises and pronouncements of such an intervention are made. The decisive and only relevant question when assessing value is to what extent the patient profits. The assessment of value is connected with the question about clinically or patient-relevant (i. e. relevant) end points, which for the patient means decisive and perceived events that as a rule have an effect on him/her. It is the aim of value assessment to ensure quality of an individual treatment and of medical practice in a wider sense.
Windeler
J
J
Medizinischer Dienst der Spitzenverbände der Krankenkassen (MDS), 45141 Essen.