Measuring Patient Preferences

The recent article by Bass et al.’ compares the &dquo;rating scale&dquo; and &dquo;standard gamble&dquo; techniques for measuring patient preferences for outcomes. They conclude that patients’ preferences differ markedly by the scaling technique used. It should be noted that the two techniques do not measure the same thing unless the patient is &dquo;risk-neutral.&dquo; The rating scale elicits a value function, while the standard gamble results in