Virtual Mentor. February 2005, Volume 7, Number 2.

February 2005 Contents

Quality of Life and Clinical Decision Making

Ethics Poll

Quality-of-life instruments use a 0 to 1 scale where 0 equals death or conditions worse than death and 1 equals full health. Using this scale, how would you rank living with paraplegia?
0
>0 to 0.25
0.26 to 0.50
0.51 to 0.75
0.76 to <1
1

Do you think it is useful to solicit numerical quality-of-life assessments from patients for the purposes of clinical decision making?
Yes
No

For purposes of Medicaid coverage, a state is deciding how to rank the importance of a given intervention for a chronic disease. Those asked to rate the improvement in quality of life the intervention confers should be:
Only those who have that chronic disease.
Only members of the public who do not have the disease.
Both those with and without the disease.

Do you think it is useful to use numerical quality-of-life assessments to inform policy decisions concerning allocation of health care resources?
Yes
No

View results

From the Editor

Measuring the Immeasurable? Quality of Life and Medical Decision Making
Matthis Synofzik
Full Text | PDF

Educating for Professionalism

Clinical Cases

Quality of Life and Prenatal Decisions
Commentary by Ludger Schols and Georg Marckmann
Full Text | PDF

Optional Treatments and Quality of Life
Commentary by Mary Jane Massie and Johannes Gobertus Meran
Full Text | PDF

Helping the Patient Achieve Quality-of-Life Goals
Commentary by Thomas Finucane, Alfred Simon and Muriel Gillick
Full Text | PDF

Journal Discussion

Evaluating the "Disability Paradox" in Conjunction with Resource Allocation
John Brazier
Full Text | PDF

Quality of Life and the Problem with QALY Researchers: Comments on 2 Papers
Tom Koch
Full Text | PDF

Values for Resource Allocation Should Expose the Adaptation Process, Not the Outcome
Elly A. Stolk and Floortje E. van Nooten
Full Text | PDF

Thoughts on Koch's Postulates
Peter A. Ubel
Full Text | PDF

Clinical Pearl

Assessing Quality of Life in Patients with Lumbar Sciatica
Bernd E. Will and Matthis Synofzik
Full Text | PDF

Law, Policy, and Society

Health Law

Bouvia v. Superior Court: Quality of Life Matters
Bryan A. Liang and Laura Lin
Full Text | PDF

Policy Forum

What's Wrong with Quality of Life as a Clinical Tool?
John Wyatt
Full Text | PDF

The Oregon Plan and QALYs
Fritz Allhoff
Full Text | PDF

Some Ethical Corrections to Valuing Health Programs in Terms of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs)
Erik Nord
Full Text | PDF

Quality of Life as the Basis of Health Care Resource Allocation: A Philosopher's Perspective on QALYs
Richard E. Ashcroft
Full Text | PDF

Medicine and Society

Medicine Goes to the Mall: Enhancement Technologies and Quality of Life
Carl Elliott
Full Text | PDF

Resources

Suggested Readings and Resources
PDF

Test Questions
Full Text | PDF

About the Contributors
Full Text | PDF