Dr. Shay Logan

Department: Philosophy
salogan@ksu.edu
Departmental Website

Kate Digby, associate professor of philosophy, studies ethical and decision-theoretic questions about cancer treatment regimens. When successful, cancer treatments offer significant upside in terms of expected number of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) a patient will have when compared to their expected number of QALYs should they not seek treatment. Whether successful or not, however, many cancer treatments also have significant long term side effects, resulting in reductions in a survivor's expected number of QALYs. Using tools from decision theory, I study how a person with access to information about the upsides, downsides, and success probabilities for a treatment regimen ought to go about deciding what's best for them in terms of an overall treatment plan.