title: Burden of Disease Study and Priority Setting in Korea: an Ethical Perspective.
abstract: When thinking about priority setting in access to healthcare resources, decision-making requires that cost-effectiveness is balanced against medical ethics. The burden of disease has emerged as an important approach to the assessment of health needs for political decision-making. However, the disability adjusted life years approach hides conceptual and methodological issues regarding the claims and value of disabled people. In this article, we discuss ethical issues that are raised as a consequence of the introduction of evidence-based health policy, such as economic evidence, in establishing resource allocation priorities. In terms of ethical values in health priority setting in Korea, there is no reliable rationale for the judgment used in decision-making as well as for setting separate and distinct priorities for different government bodies. An important question, therefore, is which ethical values guiding the practice of decision-making should be reconciled with the economic evidence found in Korean healthcare. The health technology assessment core model from the European network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) project is a good example of incorporating ethical values into decision-making. We suggest that a fair distribution of scarce healthcare resources in South Korea can be achieved by considering the ethical aspects of healthcare.
authors: Department of Medical Education and Humanities, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: So Youn
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0553-5381
authors: SY
authors: Park
authors: Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Ivo
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2690-1849
authors: I
authors: Kwon
authors: Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. parenchyme@gmail.com.
authors: In Hwan
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5450-9887
authors: IH
authors: Oh
mesh_terms: D017281:Cost of Illness; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003657:Decision Making; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D000071219:Global Burden of Disease / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D056910:Republic of Korea
keywords: Burden of Disease; Cost of Illness; Ethical Analysis; Health Policy; Korea