The physician–patient relationship: the impact of patient‐obtained medical information

Bin Xie, David M. Dilts and Mikhael Shor

Health Economics, 2006, vol. 15, issue 8, 813-833

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. Counterintuitively, we also identify circumstances under which increasing the general level of information may potentially harm patients. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:15:y:2006:i:8:p:813-833

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