QALYS

Qalys (quality-adjusted life years) are used to make judgements about the allocation of resources in medicine, and also about the medical care of particular individuals. This paper assesses that practice. It raises an objection to one common method of making the adjustment for quality, and it describes one serious unsolved difficulty that afflicts the use of qalys. But, subject to those qualifications, the paper tries as far as possible to provide sound theoretical grounds for the practice.