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Featured Research
This page features research conducted by RAND Health research staff that has been published in a scholarly journal.The Risk Benefit Balance in the United States: Who Decides?
Graham J, Hu J. Health Affairs, Vol. 26, No. 3, May-June 2007, pp. 625-635
Read article (may require registration, or payment on the Health Affairs website)
Abstract
A health policy decision often requires a balancing of risks, costs, and benefits. In this paper we illustrate that there is no uniform answer in the United States to the question of who decides the risk-benefit balance. We use a wide range of case examples from medicine and public health to show the different approaches that are used to allocate decision-making responsibility. Our ultimate purpose is to urge the U.S. health policy community to develop a more consistent way of thinking about how risk-benefit decisions could be guided by general principles.
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