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Ann Thorac Surg 1996;61:513-514
© 1996 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Editorial

A Randomized Study Would Answer the Question

James G. Jollis, MD, Robert M. Califf, MD

Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

More than two centuries ago, Adam Smith [1] first described the ``invisible hand,'' the forces that allocate resources efficiently in the free market. In the absence of a market and the invisible hand, one must rely on central planning and queuing to distribute resources. In this issue of The Annals, Maziak and colleagues [2] describe the system by which patients are placed into queues for cardiac operations in Ontario, Canada.

Maziak and colleagues state that their findings will ``enable health care providers to rationalize costs without jeopardizing patient care.'' Skeptics may believe that they have confused the terms ration and rational, the former describing the method by which health services are distributed by the Ontario Provincial Adult Care Network. As part of the rationing, or ``rationalization'' of health care, the costs of waiting lists need to be factored into global health care budgets. For bypass operations, these costs include preoperative myocardial infarctions and their long-term sequelae, deaths, resources required to manage patients who become unstable while waiting . . . [Full Text of this Article]


Related Article

Can Patients With Left Main Stenosis Wait for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting?
Donna E. Maziak, Vivek Rao, George T. Christakis, Karen J. Buth, Jeri Sever, Stephen E. Fremes, and Bernard S. Goldman
Ann. Thorac. Surg. 1996 61: 552-557. [Abstract] [Full Text]



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Ann. Thorac. Surg.Home page
C. D. Naylor, J. G. Jollis, and R. M. Califf
Left Main Stenosis
Ann. Thorac. Surg., October 1, 1996; 62(4): 1239 - 1241.
[Full Text]


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