Optimality

  This week’s paper of the week is brought to you by Professor Sir Muir Gray, 3V's Founding Director. Bottom line, chosen by Muir from the paper Among patients who were scheduled for CABG and had been randomly assigned to undergo bilateral or single internal-thoracic-artery grafting, there was no significant between-group difference in the rate of death from any cause at 10 years in the intention-to-treat analysis. The conclusion is This study shows that in the case of CABG more in healthcare is often no better. Once again Avedis Donabedian’s illustration about optimality has been demonstrated. Implications for value improvement  This is another example of the principle first described by Avedis Donabedian and expressed through his diagrammatic representation [...]