An empirical investigation of patient preferences and the use of information when choosing medical treatment technologies

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This project aims at examining the role of patient preferences and the use of information when patients choose medical treatment technologies. These aspects of patient behavior are of great interest for health economists and politicians alike because recent health care reforms, for example in Germany and the U.S., delegate decisions to patients. Reliable data on patient behavior is crucial both to modeling the effects of incentives in health care markets and to designing optimal policy interventions.Using experimental survey techniques and a random sample of the U.S. population, I would like to analyze how patients choose medical technologies in interaction with their physicians. Physicians act both as experts and suppliers of medical services. Thus, a physicians advice might be based not only on the patients utility but also on their own financial incentives. Given the physicians potential conflict of interest, it is important to investigate how alternative sources of information the government, insurers impact patients choices. The specific aims of the project are (i) to develop and implement an innovative survey instrument to measure patients preferences and to study the importance of alternative sources of information, (ii) to administer the survey in a representative sample, and (iii) to analyze the data using econometric models for discrete choice. I can prepare and implement the survey from January to April 2012 in collaboration with Prof. Arie Kapteyn at RAND, Santa Monica. An important reason to choose RAND as a host institution besides its excellent research infrastructure is the possibility to conduct the survey as part of a long-term project financed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The survey instrument will be implemented in the American Life Panel (ALP), an innovative internet panel that is hosted by RAND. A pilot study has already been successfully conducted.