Name: ______
Booklet of Decisions
Form A
(For students born in calendar years ending with an even number, e.g., 1976)
Please simply answer the questions in this booklet. Please complete this booklet before you look at the course readings for the first meeting.
Imagine that you have a terribly serious case of cancer. You must decide whether to have surgery or radiation. Both treatments have been studied for many years, so there are good estimates of survival potential for each.
On average, if 100 people have surgery:
90 will survive the surgery
34 will survive through the five-year benchmark
On average, if 100 people have the radiation:
100 will survive the radiation
22 will survive through the five-year benchmark
Which option would you choose? _____ Surgery____ Radiation
______
Imagine that you have been taking a medicine for several months. However, you now have to start a second drug treatment that has known interactions with your current medicine. Thus, you must switch from your old drug to one of two new drugs that have both just arrived on the market. The new medicines differ in terms of two side effects. You also know the side effect profile for your former drug. The incidence of each side effect is described below:
NauseaBlurred Vision
Old DrugSubstantialExtremely Minor
New Drug #1MinorModerate
New Drug #2ModerateMinor
Which would you choose? New Drug #1New Drug#2
______
A shortage has developed for a popular model of medical device, and patients must now wait two months for the devices. A group of physicians has been making a good profit implanting the devices in return for the customary fee. The physicians decide to ask patients to pay $200 out of their own pockets for the device, if they want to avoid the wait.
Given your own moral judgment about what is fair, is this behavior:
______Acceptable (Fair)______Unacceptable (Unfair)
Consider a 50 year-old white female patient with average risk factors for breast cancer.
- Do you think this woman has more than a 40% chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime?
Yes _____ No _____
- Please estimate this woman’s chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime:
______%
______
A physician finds out that a particular patient has very good health insurance. He raises his fee for that patient by $50 per visit as a result.
Given your own moral judgment about what is fair, is this behavior:
______Acceptable (Fair)______Unacceptable (Unfair)
______
Imagine that you work at the CDC and you are in charge of implementing a public health program to battle a confirmed outbreak of the Avian Flu. The flu is expected to kill 600 people in a particular community. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Assume that the exact (accurate) scientific estimates of the consequences of the programs are as follows:
If Program A is adopted, 400 people will die.
If Program B is adopted, there is a 1/3 probability that nobody will die and a 2/3 probability that 600 people will die.
Only one of the program programs can be adopted.
Which of the two programs would you favor?
Program AProgram B
Imagine that you set policy and priorities for government grants supporting medical research. A researcher has applied for a grant. The project will result in a medical device that lowers the risk of fatal complications in a particular surgery so that they occur in 40% of patients, instead of 50% of patients. The device is expected to save 200 lives per year in the U.S. How much of your $5m budget would you be willing to devote to the project:
$ ______
______
Imagine that you are part of an FDA panel evaluating a drug. The drug has proven, unique benefits for a range of psychiatric disorders, reducing the incidence of suicide and violent behaviors for extremely difficult to treat patients. It is also estimated to cause psychotic breaks leading to violence in 3% of these patients.
How likely would you be to approve the drug?
1234567891011
Not At Extremely
All Likely Likely