Weimer, (public affairs, U. of Wisconsin, Madison) uses analysis of the Organ Procurement and Transportation Network to argue for private nonprofit medical governance in the US. Beginning with an overview of the complexities of medical governance, the work is organized into nine chapters covering the history of the Organ Procurement and Transportation Network, a description of its structure and operations, discussion of the governance of the organ supply, controversy surrounding liver allocation, efforts to address racial disparity in kidney distribution, and analysis of the most effective characteristics of the Organ Procurement and Transportation Network as a governing model. The volume, which includes several figures and tables as well as a list of abbreviations and acronyms, will be of interest to public policy researchers and others involved in health care management. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Governments throughout the industrialized world make decisions that fundamentally affect the quality and accessibility of medical care. In the United States, despite the absence of universal health insurance, these decisions have great influence on the practice of medicine. In Medical Governance, David Weimer explores an alternative regulatory approach to medical care based on the delegation of decisions about the allocation of scarce medical resources to private nonprofit organizations. He investigates the specific development of rules for the U.S. organ transplant system and details the conversion of a voluntary network of transplant centers to one private rulemaker: the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). As the case unfolds, Weimer demonstrates that the OPTN is more efficient, nimble, and better at making evidence-based decisions than a public agency; and the OPTN also protects accountability and the public interest more than private for-profit organizations. Weimer addresses similar governance arrangements as they could apply to other areas of medicine, including medical records and the control of Medicare expenditures, making this timely and useful case study a valuable resource for debates over restructuring the U.S. health care system.
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