In medicine, “rationing of care” means that some patients will not be offered, or will be denied, care that could potentially benefit them. In this virtual lecture, Dr. Ole Norheim discusses the histories of patients who have experienced rationing of care in low- and high-income countries: patients with childhood cancer in Ethiopia and spinal muscular atrophy in Norway.
Dr. Norheim has worked both as a medical doctor and ethicist in Norway and Ethiopia and in this lecture, he reflects on his experiences of resource scarcity and inequality and the consequences for patients and the health care system. He will argue that systematic priority setting based on shared ethical values can reduce the amount of unfair rationing. Such ethical values could include health maximization, priority to the worse off, and social protection.
Dr. Ole F. Norheim is professor and director of the Bergen Centre for Ethics and Priority Setting, University of Bergen, Norway, and an adjunct professor of global health at the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He is also head of the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board, former chair of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Technical Advisory Group on Health Benefit Packages, and series editor of the World Bank’s Disease Control Priorities project. Dr. Norheim also chaired the WHO’s Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage and the third Norwegian National Committee on Priority Setting in Health Care.
