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Excess demand and patient selection for heart and liver transplantation*

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Part of the book series: Developments in Health Economics and Public Policy ((HEPP,volume 1))

Abstract

The number of transplantations of major organs and tissues (OTs) grew dramatically in the mid-1980s in the U.S. and Europe, despite their very high cost, as technological improvements led to increased survival rates.1 Follow-up studies using patient registries have clarified the survival rates of grafts and patients in relation to underlying diseases, complications, tissue matching and drug therapy, leading to publication of recommended “indications” and “contraindications” for specific OT procedures (e.g., for the complicated case of liver transplantation, see Foster and Burton, 1989; Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 1990). However, the actual allocation of organs might differ from outcome-based medical guidelines for a number of reasons such as variation in third-party coverage and patient ability-to-pay, competition among health care organizations, or experimental investigations.

The authors wish to thank Drs. Rosanna Coffey, Donald Goldstone, and Judy Ball for much helpful advice, Hermann Liau for computer programming, and Craig Spirka of Systemetrics for expert and timely assistance with the database for this project.

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and no official endorsement by AHCPR or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is intended or should be inferred.

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Friedman, B., Ozminkowski, R.J., Taylor, Z. (1992). Excess demand and patient selection for heart and liver transplantation*. In: Zweifel, P., Frech, H.E. (eds) Health Economics Worldwide. Developments in Health Economics and Public Policy, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2392-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2392-1_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5055-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-2392-1

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