Thanks Ulrik, this is a really interesting question about a list of interventions and you might be right there is scope for more work here. I would imagine @CE (charity entrepreneurship) have thought about this before, and might have a list of specific medical interventions that could be cost-effective.
I might start by splitting these into “life saving” interventions, where most of the benefit comes from one potential life “saved”—situations like malnutrition, cancer treatment and heart operations “life improving” interventions where most of the benefit comes from things like fistular surgery, sight-saving medication and surgery and fixing retracted testicles.
The problem is though where do you stop considering something a single “intervention”? Treatment for malaria, pneumonia and sickle cell could be cost effective but is already a standard part of almost any health systems, and its more about making sure people get the treatment quickly and cheaply or for free.
I also like your idea of “networks of people we can trust” to support individuals as well, which could have the advantage of building EA community and resisting value drift as well. Keep in mind though these kinds of people might also be busy with other work. I personally love to be contacted with questions about this kind of thing so am always happy to give my poorly-to-moderately-informed opinion on medical stuff.
Thanks Ulrik, this is a really interesting question about a list of interventions and you might be right there is scope for more work here. I would imagine @CE (charity entrepreneurship) have thought about this before, and might have a list of specific medical interventions that could be cost-effective.
I might start by splitting these into “life saving” interventions, where most of the benefit comes from one potential life “saved”—situations like malnutrition, cancer treatment and heart operations “life improving” interventions where most of the benefit comes from things like fistular surgery, sight-saving medication and surgery and fixing retracted testicles.
The problem is though where do you stop considering something a single “intervention”? Treatment for malaria, pneumonia and sickle cell could be cost effective but is already a standard part of almost any health systems, and its more about making sure people get the treatment quickly and cheaply or for free.
I also like your idea of “networks of people we can trust” to support individuals as well, which could have the advantage of building EA community and resisting value drift as well. Keep in mind though these kinds of people might also be busy with other work. I personally love to be contacted with questions about this kind of thing so am always happy to give my poorly-to-moderately-informed opinion on medical stuff.