Improving medical decision-making with a management science game theory approach to liver transplantation

Even though nowadays medicine is necessarily linked with technology, it is still a service involving human interaction, which frequently requires the help of management science tools. Indeed, a medical consultation can be an extremely complex example of human interaction. Management science, operations research and in particular game theory may play a key role in helping to improve the results of medical decision-making processes. Game theory is widely used in a large variety of decision-making studies, but there is little application to health care issues, namely the doctor-patient relationship. This paper uses game theory to model the liver transplantation consultation for patients suffering from Alcoholic Liver Disease. This disease is very delicate, and patients at its end-stages require special dedication where management science tools are of utmost importance. They may try to deceive doctors, which may lead to bad outcomes. The Nash equilibrium behaviors by doctor and patient are obtained. Results show some health policy and managerial implications on the decision-makers’ parameters and on the order of play so as to achieve, for instance, higher rates of patient’s cooperation.