Cooperation or Conflict in Doctor-Patient Relationship? An Analysis From the Perspective of Evolutionary Game

Abstract

The uncoordinated and conflicting relationships between doctors and patients are becoming a real dilemma faced by the medical industry and the whole society, which severely affects people's sense of well-being and health. Based on the multiple dimensions of trust, information asymmetry, and moral hazard, we use evolutionary game theory and replicating dynamic equations to construct the evolutionary game model, in the model, doctors and patients could select cooperation strategy or conflict strategy. Through an in-depth study on the model and the model's simulation, we find that the doctor-patient relationship will eventually form a zero-sum game or a win-win situation. As for which situation is stable, it is closely related to the initial parameters of the evolutionary game model and the payment matrix of the evolutionary game. Increasing the trust degree, reducing the degree of information asymmetry and moral hazard would help doctors and patients shift their strategic choices from conflict to cooperation. We also find that increasing the trust degree, reducing the degree of information asymmetry, and reducing the degree of the patients' moral hazard could promote the cooperation level effectively. The study aims to ease the contradiction between doctors and patients, solve the current doctor-patient dilemma, and provide a particular reference for building a new doctor-patient cooperation relationship.

Keywords

• Doctor-patient relationship
• evolutionary game
• information asymmetry
• trust
• moral hazard