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Examining patient benefit

James Wilson, Parashkev Nachev, Daniel Herron, Nick McNally, Bryan Williams and Geraint Rees
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2022-0128
Future Healthc J March 2023
James Wilson
AUniversity College London, London, UK
Roles: professor of philosophy
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  • For correspondence: james.wilson@ucl.ac.uk
Parashkev Nachev
BUniversity College London, London, UK
Roles: professor of neurology
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Daniel Herron
CUniversity College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Roles: head of research innovation
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Nick McNally
DUniversity College London/University College Hospitals, London, UK
Roles: managing director (research)
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Bryan Williams
EUniversity College London, London, UK
Roles: chair of medicine
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Geraint Rees
FUniversity College London, London, UK
Roles: vice provost (research, innovation and global engagement)
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Abstract

Healthcare policy, clinical practice and clinical research all declare patient benefit as their avowed aim. Yet, the conceptual question of what exactly constitutes patient benefit has received much less attention than the practical means of realising it. Currently, three key areas of conceptual unclarity make the achieved, real-world impact hard to quantify and disconnect it from the magnitude of the practical endeavour: (1) the distinction between objective and subjective benefit, (2) the relation between individual and population measures of benefit, and (3) the optimal measurement of benefit in research studies. A philosophical understanding of wellbeing is required to clarify these problems. Adopting a rigorous philosophical framework makes apparent that the differing goals of clinicians, researchers and research funders may make differing conceptions of patient benefit appropriate. A framework is proposed for developing rigour in methods for specifying and measuring patient benefit, and for matching benefit measures to different contexts.

KEYWORDS:
  • patient benefit
  • translational medicine
  • bioethics
  • prioritisation
  • © Royal College of Physicians 2023. All rights reserved.
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Examining patient benefit
James Wilson, Parashkev Nachev, Daniel Herron, Nick McNally, Bryan Williams, Geraint Rees
Future Healthc J Mar 2023, fhj.2022-0128; DOI: 10.7861/fhj.2022-0128

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Examining patient benefit
James Wilson, Parashkev Nachev, Daniel Herron, Nick McNally, Bryan Williams, Geraint Rees
Future Healthc J Mar 2023, fhj.2022-0128; DOI: 10.7861/fhj.2022-0128
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