The Nobel in Economics and Medicine?

Once again, the Nobel prize for economics–not science and medicine–has immense influence on the practice of medicine.
Every day, in fact.
This year, Richard Thaler, a behavioral economist at the University of Chicago, won for his work on human biases and temptations.
The famous writer Michael Lewis (Moneyball) has a nice essay on Thaler’s work here.
Along with Kahneman and Tvresky, the work of behavioral psychologists and economists directly relates to clinical medicine because it describes human decision making.
Thaler made lists of irrational decisions. For example, we often make choices that don’t result in long-term well-being. E.g. Eating sugary foods and obesity. This led him and colleague Cass Sunstein to the concept of choice architecture.
This concept, applied to employee savings programs, led to an increase in the savings rate of workers.
Thaler calls it a sort of libertarian paternalism.
That’s sort of what doctors do, isn’t it? We are experts in medical science; patients are expert in their goals, and the best medical decisions come when we help align care with a person’s goals.
Libertarian paternalism: freedom of choice with expert nudges.
What’s critical for doctors to understand–and I wrestle with this everyday in the office–is that humans are not maximizers, or logical, or even all that sensible. Doctors feel decisions. So do our patients.
Kahneman and Tversky described the notion that people respondÂ...

Source: Dr John M - October 11, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs