Prisoner’s Dilemma in Context of Medical Consultation
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1743922/pdf/v013p00461.pdf
This resource is an article from a journal called Quality and Safety in Health Carewritten by C Tarrant, T Stokes, and A M Colman. This resource connects to our class as it discusses how game theory can be applied to doctor-patient interaction. It discusses the inherent issues found currently and then makes suggestions to improve trust between both doctor and patient.
Tarrant and co. describe the Prisoner Dilemma in context of a medical consultation. In this example, a hypothetical patient goes to a general practice with a sore throat. The doctor has two different options: to prescribe antibiotics in just a few minutes, or to do a full examination and give well thought and researched advice about lifestyle changes alongside the drugs. This creates a game whereby there are four options:
- (C,C): the doctor takes longer giving the advice, the patient follows said advice.
- (C,D):the doctor takes longer giving the advice, the patient chooses not to follow
- (D,C):the doctor gives a prescription, the patient follows the treatment
- (D,D):the doctor gives a prescription, the patient does not follow the treatment
Tarrant and co. rightfully say that (C,C) is the best outcome for both participants, however it is not certain for the doctor that the patient will follow said advice (which many times is accompanied by large lifestyle chances). If the patient doesn’t, then the choice to give the patient the advice now becomes the worst strategy for the doctor. It could, hypothetically be better for the doctor to simply go quickly and give a prescription, but in doing so, the best option for the patient would be to get a second opinion to get a higher quality of care.
Tarrant and co. suggest that, for matters of consultation and cooperation, when future interactions are anticipated it incentives both parties to choose (C,C) as the doctor will be able to see the fruits of his labor and be able to manage progress with the patient. Tarrant and co. do recognize that there is an inherent imbalance when viewing doctor-patient interactions through a Prisoner’s Dilemma game as most of the time the payoff for the patient vastly outweighs the payoff for the doctor.