Background. Regionalization of high-risk surgical procedures to selected high-volume
centers has been proposed as a way to reduce operative mortality. For patients, however,
travel to regional centers may be undesirable despite the expected mortality benefit.
Objective. To determine the strength of patient preferences for local care. Design. Using a
scenario of potentially resectable pancreatic cancer and a modification of the standard
gamble utility assessment technique, we determined the level of additional operative …