The physician-patient relationship: The impact of patient-obtained medical information

Bin Xie, David M. Dilts, Mikhael Shor

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate the impact of patient-obtained medical information (POMI) on the physician-patient relationship when patients, as a group, are heterogeneously informed and a physician's interests do not coincide with those of her patients. Introducing additional well-informed patients to the population discontinuously affects the physician's strategy, having no effect unless a sufficient quantity is added. When few patients are well informed, increasing the precision of their information level has no effect on the physician's strategy. Alternately, when a sufficient number of well-informed patients exists, increasing the precision of their information allows all patients to free-ride by receiving more appropriate treatment recommendations. Coun terintuitively, we also identify circumstances under which increasing the general level of information may potentially harm patients.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)813-833
Number of pages21
JournalHealth Economics
Volume15
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2006
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Patient population
  • Patient-obtained medical information
  • Physician-patient relationship
  • Supplier-induced demand

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health Policy

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