TITLE:
Antibiotic Resistance, Uncertainty, and Medical Decision-Making by a Physician
AUTHORS:
Sanjana S. Batabyal
KEYWORDS:
Antibiotics, Behavior, Physician, Resistance, Uncertainty
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.8 No.11,
August
16,
2018
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.