the counterfactual case would beâ You replace a worse doctor than youâ. I donât know how valuable would it be
The original 2012 post from Gregory Lewis tried to estimate this, and ends up estimating that a doctor can make a difference of âaround 20 livesâ, excluding donations, which is a lot!
Thanks a lot by the sharing the article (This is not the same as I saw on 80000). So Dr.Lewis thought aboutâreplacing a worse doctorâ. There are some factors that would change the QALYs number:
1.Mentioned in Lewisâs article, different types of doctors contribute differently. Such as maybe doctors who treat cold donât make big impact(because itâs easy, with SOP), but who treat cancers well do.
2.How bad are bad doctors?
3.The value of âcuring a diseaseâ, sometimes, curing a cancer doesnât mean you prevent a person dying from cancer, because he might get another cancer in a few years.
The positive impact relies on âreducing sufferingâ, but curing disease may only delay the suffering, especially for the seniors.(unless you die with less suffering, some dying ways are more suffering, like advanced cancers)
If you consider the impact of patientsâ relatives, prolonging patientsâ lifespan might be good if their relatives feel sad about the patientâs death.
The original 2012 post from Gregory Lewis tried to estimate this, and ends up estimating that a doctor can make a difference of âaround 20 livesâ, excluding donations, which is a lot!
For other ways in which a doctor can have a lot of impact, you might be interested in Careers in medicineâa new path profile from Probably Good and High Impact Medicine.
Thanks a lot by the sharing the article (This is not the same as I saw on 80000). So Dr.Lewis thought aboutâreplacing a worse doctorâ. There are some factors that would change the QALYs number: 1.Mentioned in Lewisâs article, different types of doctors contribute differently. Such as maybe doctors who treat cold donât make big impact(because itâs easy, with SOP), but who treat cancers well do. 2.How bad are bad doctors? 3.The value of âcuring a diseaseâ, sometimes, curing a cancer doesnât mean you prevent a person dying from cancer, because he might get another cancer in a few years. The positive impact relies on âreducing sufferingâ, but curing disease may only delay the suffering, especially for the seniors.(unless you die with less suffering, some dying ways are more suffering, like advanced cancers) If you consider the impact of patientsâ relatives, prolonging patientsâ lifespan might be good if their relatives feel sad about the patientâs death.