Maximizing the benefit of liver transplantation: Implications for organ allocation and clinical practice

Benefit in medicine refers to the incremental gain in health status derived from a medical intervention. It can be conceptualized as follows:where Hw denotes health status with treatment, and Hwo denotes health status without treatment. In other words, benefit combines both need and outcome. “Health status” can be broadly divided into two categories: quality of life and quantity of life. Therefore, “beneficial” medical interventions are those which improve quality or quantity of life (or both). Value is simply Benefit*Cost, so medical interventions that create significant benefit at low cost are termed “high value care” [1].

Source: Transplantation Reviews - December 18, 2015 Category: Transplant Surgery Authors: Michael L. Volk Source Type: research