Selecting Medical Service Scheme: a Novel Method based on Prospect Theory


Qiao-Li Wang, Jing Han, Shun-Xin Ye, Jian Chai, Kin Keung Lai




With the frequent incidents of domestic medical disputes, the doctor-patient relationship has been strained, and government and medical institution have gradually been focusing on doctor-patient communication. The service medical model based on patients' psychological expectation allows patients taking the initiatives in the medical decision-making, and plays an important role in improving the doctor-patient relationship. The costs of medical services schemes for different patients vary from the different expectations existed. In this paper, we presented a method for selection of medical services schemes based on prospect theory. First, based on the calculation of total similarity among all characteristic attributes, we built a possibility distribution for a set of medical service schemes; then, according to the patient's expectations, we calculated the values of all medical service schemes on necessary-type index treatment effects and the values of charismatic-type indexes of curing time and costs based on prospect theory, respectively. We further determined the weight of necessary-type indexes and charismatic-type indexes; on this basis, we calculated the comprehensive prospect values of all medical service schemes, and selected the medical service schemes in accordance with the comprehensive prospect values; finally, we verified the feasibility and effectiveness of this method by case analysis.