Consider the value of the following information in a medical context. Suppose that a patient visits a doctor’s office and that the doctor decides on the basis of the signs that the patient’s appendix should be removed immediately. Meanwhile, the doctor orders a white blood cell count. The doctor decides that the appendix must be removed no matter what the blood count happens to be.
a. What is the value to the doctor of the information (in the cost-benefit sense discussed in this chapter) about the blood cell count?
b. Why might the doctor order the test anyway?