Reports Outline Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation Findings from University of Florence (A Coevolution Model of Defensive Medicine, Litigation and Medical Malpractice Insurance): Mathematics – Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation

2023 JUN 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Mathematics - Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation. According to news reporting from Florence, Italy, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “We model the interactions between physicians and patients, subject to clinical and legal risks, by means of an evolutionary game. In each instant of time, there is a large number of random pairwise encounters between members of the two populations.”

Financial support for this research came from Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (Fondo di Sviluppo e Coesione).

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Florence, “In each encounter, a physician heals a patient. The outcome of the healing process is uncertain and may result in patient harm; if that happens, the patient may sue the physician for medical malpractice. Physicians have to choose between two alternative treatments, D and ND, with different levels of benefits and risks. The treatment D is less risky than the alternative treatment ND, but has the disadvantage of providing a lower expected benefit to the patient. Therefore its provision corresponds to practicing ‘negative’ defensive medicine.Physicians prevent, at least partially, negligence charges by buying medical mal-practice insurance. This transfers the risk of litigation from the physician to the insurer.The dynamics we analyze are determined by a three-dimensional discrete-time dynamic system, where the variables x and y are, respectively, the shares of defensive physicians and litigious patients, while the variable a represents the insurance premium.In such a context we show that, depending on the policy’s price calculation principle as well as on model’s parameters related to the accuracy of the judicial system and legal reforms, the game’s final outcome could be an appealing equilibrium point in which the defensive strategy of physicians and litigious behavior of patients vanish, an interior (Nash) equilibrium in which all strategies coexist, or even an oscillatory behavior arisen via a Neimart-Sacker bifurcation in which strategies coexist in a recurrent manner.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Furthermore, we state a ‘no chaos’ conjecture, supported by analytical, numerical and empirical arguments.(.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: A Coevolution Model of Defensive Medicine, Litigation and Medical Malpractice Insurance. Communications In Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, 2023;117. Communications In Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation can be contacted at: Elsevier, Radarweg 29, 1043 Nx Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Communications In Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/communications-in-nonlinear-science-and-numerical-simulation/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Marcello Galeotti, University of Florence, Dept Stat Informat & Applicat, Florence, Italy. Additional authors for this research include Angelo Antoci, Paolo Russu and Giovanni Rabitti.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnsns.2022.106935. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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