Doctor Decision-Making and Patient Outcomes

Janet Currie, W. Bentley MacLeod and Kate Musen

Journal of Economic Literature, 2026, vol. 64, issue 1, 141-94

Abstract: Doctors often treat similar patients differently, which affects health outcomes and medical spending. We assess the recent literature on doctor decision-making through the lens of a model that incorporates diagnostic and procedural skills, beliefs, incentives, and differences in patient pools. Decision-making is affected by beliefs, training, experience, peer effects, financial incentives, and time constraints. Interventions to improve decision-making include providing information, guidelines, and technologies like electronic medical records and algorithmic decision tools. Economists have made progress in understanding doctor decision-making, but applications of that knowledge to improving health care are still limited.

JEL-codes: D83 D91 G51 I11 I14 J24 J44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Working Paper: Doctor Decision Making and Patient Outcomes (2025)
Working Paper: Doctor Decision Making and Patient Outcomes (2024)
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DOI: 10.1257/jel.20251762

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