Premium
Rationing through risk assessment in clinical genetics: all categories have wheels
Author(s) -
Prior Lindsay
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.00266
Subject(s) - rationing , context (archaeology) , set (abstract data type) , process (computing) , risk assessment , psychology , business , actuarial science , risk analysis (engineering) , economics , computer science , management , biology , health care , economic growth , paleontology , programming language , operating system
This paper focuses on issues relating to rationing in the context of cancer genetics. It indicates how the allocation of scarce resources to patients in need is not simply a managerial process, but something that is routinely woven into the fine web of organisational activity. In the framework of this study – executed within a UK regional cancer genetics clinic – much of that activity circulates around issues relating to risk assessment. The author first illustrates how risk assessments in cancer genetics affect the distribution of clinical benefits in general. Following that, it is explained how professionals assemble risk categories and how the assembly work relates to rationing. The paper concludes by suggesting that rationing principles should more properly be seen as stratagems that are called upon and manipulated by lay and professional parties, rather than as a set of guide rules imposed top‐down by managerial agents.