Abstract
Health economics literature has demonstrated that physician motivation is related with three reasons—extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, and prosocial motivation—and that this motivational structure is influenced by the type of organization in which they work. Yet this research proves insufficient to identify the origin of the physician's psychological motivations. To shed light on this gap, this chapter aims to outline a neuroimaging methodology which would prove useful to identify the neurocognitive motivational structures of hospital physicians with the proposes the design of several intrasubject laboratory experiments, using the functional neuroimaging technique magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Identifying the neuronal origin of doctors' motivational framework belonging to private or public health organizations would be a step forward in defining the most appropriate motivational plan for a medical profile working in different hospital environments.
TopBackground
The motivation with which a person performs their work is the “energy” or set of forces originating both internally and externally which drives them to initiate work-related behaviour, in a certain way, direction, intensity and duration (Herzberg, 2017). Organizations around the world are currently investing huge amounts of resources in the promotion of worker motivation, as it has become evident that staff motivation and satisfaction are directly related to the quality and performance of the work (Kovacs, 2018). This motivation is especially key for physicians in health care organizations given the sensitivity and the effects of their work on patients and health systems. It has been demonstrated, in fact, that the motivation and satisfaction of physicians affects the accuracy of the medical services provided (Avery and Schultz, 2017).
Health economics literature has traditionally debated the mechanisms of motivation for physicians which improve their performance and quality, and it assumed that the main work motivation is financial reward (Russell, 2015). However, over the past few decades, the development of behavioural economics (Kahneman, 2012) and neuroeconomics (Lee & Reeve, 2019) have expanded this analytical framework by incorporating the capabilities of other non-monetary motivators such as intrinsic motivation (Fine, 2018) and altruistic or prosocial physician behaviour (Böckler, et al. 2018).
The empirical evidence shows that the lack of work motivation affects the performance of health workers, the provision of services and the performance of the health system, (Kjellström et al, 2017). That is why the present study protocol aims to respond or support the problem of work motivation in the health sector. In this regard, it is important to identify and characterize the type of work motivators to which physicians respond and their relationship with the type of organization in which they work in order to increase job satisfaction and improve patient outcomes.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Electroencephalography: Neurological tool that measures the electrical changes produced by brain activity.
Incentives System: Is the program offered by a business organization to workers in order to stimulate the performance of their work activity and increase production.
Health Economics: It is a field of research whose object of study is the optimal use of resources for disease care and health promotion. Their task is to estimate the organizational efficiency of health services and suggest ways to improve this organization.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Neurological technique that measures the magnetic changes produced by neural activity.
Clinical Decision Making: Is the process the process used by healthcare professionals and which affects their patients, an enormously broad and diverse concept that ranges from diagnosis to treatment, through many other aspects related to healthcare activity.