The physician as perfect agent: A comment

Journal/Book: Soc Sci Med. 1998; 47: The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd. 355-356.

Abstract: This comment is focused on the nature of the agency relationship between the physician and the patient. Beyond the discussion of the relative merits of the empowered physician versus empowered patient model, it is argued here that two features need to be integrated for an adequate account of this complex interaction: the two stages of the physician's action (the diagnosis and the treatment) and the physician's double agency (to the patient and to the representative of the collective interest).

Note: Article Rochaix L, Univ Western Brittany, Dept Econ, 12 Rue Kergoat, F-29200 Brest, FRANCE

Keyword(s): the physician-patient interaction; Principal-Agent models; demand inducement; patients' preferences; consumer sovereignty in health care; CARE

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