Antibiotic Resistance, Uncertainty, and Medical Decision-Making by a Physician ()
ABSTRACT
I explore the decision-making process of a physician
in the context of otitis media—commonly known as an ear infection—when resistance to antibiotics is an issue.
Otitis media provides a unique context in which to study such decision-making
because there is no culture that one can use to definitively prove the presence
of a bacterial infection. This creates an atmosphere in which the abuse of
antibiotics is possible. I first use a decision tree to characterize the
decision-making process and then I conduct numerical analysis using fictitious
data to illustrate the working of my model. Next, I show how the dependence of
the infection probability, PS,
on socioeconomic variables can be used to shed light on a physician’s behavior
and on the patient-physician relationship. Finally, I discuss how the research
presented in this paper might be extended in the future.
Share and Cite:
Batabyal, S. (2018) Antibiotic Resistance, Uncertainty, and Medical Decision-Making by a Physician.
Theoretical Economics Letters,
8, 2388-2399. doi:
10.4236/tel.2018.811154.
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