How much good does a doctor do?

Abstract

The marginal impact of a UK doctor on Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) was estimated using ecological data from across countries and over time. Using various methods, the estimated DALYs averted per doctor per year ranged from 3 to 15. These estimates suggest that, on average, UK doctors have a modest but positive impact on population health, and appear to offer good value for money. However, the results also highlight that doctors working in the developing world have a much larger impact on population health, suggesting that modest donations to global health interventions could do more good than the life’s work of the average UK doctor. – AI-generated abstract.