This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Louis C. Waddell, Jr, MD
Houston, Tex

JAMA. 1995;273(13):996.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—In the most recent of a series of articles by Dr Eddy¹ featuring the merits of clinical decision analysis, he claims to offer what many may think impossible: to contain medical costs while increasing quality. However, to do this, "quality" has to be defined in a particular way and his proposals involve major and dramatic changes. The following appear to be required: (1) acceptance of the utilitarian philosophy by a society in which to date no particular secular philosophy is dominant, (2) widespread acceptance of decision analysis in clinical medicine, and (3) a complete reversal and denial of the major tenet of medical ethics—the primacy of the individual patient's well-being. Utilitarian philosophy becomes the controlling principle in health care decisions. Eddy states that the goal of a health care system should be the maximization of the health of the group, ie, the greatest good for the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?