Health care prioritization: a clinician’s duty

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Publicly funded health care systems are increasingly confronted with fiscal and demographic challenges and face pressure to constrain resource use without impacting clinical outcomes. FINDINGS: Clinicians routinely make decisions in the care of their patients that use finite health care resources. Aligning the goal of caring for their patients with ensuring that effective interventions are available for patients who are most likely to benefit is critical to sustaining the publicly funded health care system. IMPLICATIONS: Balancing the needs of patients with health care prioritization will require changes to be made across the health care system. Incorporating costs and value for money when caring for patients and making decisions will play an important role in efficiency and value in the health system.