Economic information in clinical decision-making: focus group discussions with Finnish general practitioners and patients.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To study the factors that influence physicians' and patients' use of, and willingness to use, economic information in clinical decision-making, and examine physicians' views on whether clinical practice guidelines can support its use.

Design

Semistructured focus group discussions with an inductive content analysis.

Setting

Finnish health centre general practitioners (GPs) and adult patient representatives, five groups of each.

Participants

22 GPs and 15 patient representatives.

Results

In the GP groups, five factors involved in using economic information in clinical decisions were raised: the issue of who pays, knowledge about cost information, the cost-benefit ratio of treatments, care planning and health economic understanding. Concerning th

SUBMITTER: Ahonen JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12911728 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature