title: Health care prioritization: a clinician's duty.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Publicly funded health care systems are increasingly confronted with fiscal and demographic challenges and face pressure to constrain resource use without impacting clinical outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinicians routinely make decisions in the care of their patients that use finite health care resources. Aligning the goal of caring for their patients with ensuring that effective interventions are available for patients who are most likely to benefit is critical to sustaining the publicly funded health care system.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Balancing the needs of patients with health care prioritization will require changes to be made across the health care system. Incorporating costs and value for money when caring for patients and making decisions will play an important role in efficiency and value in the health system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 2T9 Canada.
authors.forename: Lianne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barnieh
authors.affiliation: Yunus Centre for Social Business & Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland ; Institutes for Applied Health Research and Society & Social Justice Research, Glasgow, Scotland.
authors.forename: Cam
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Donaldson
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 2T9 Canada ; Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada ; Institute for Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Braden
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Manns
keywords: Clinician; Health care prioritization; Health economics; Nephrology