Intensive care medicine is one of the fastest growing services provided by hospitals and perhaps one of the most expensive. Yet in response to the global financial crisis of the last few years, healthcare funding is slowing or decreasing throughout the world. How we manage healthcare resources in the intensive care unit (ICU) now and in a future that promises only greater cost constraints is the subject of this book, the third in an informal series of volumes providing a global perspective on difficult issues arising in the ICU. Taking 12 developed countries as their focus, leading experts provide a country-by-country analysis of current ICU resource allocation. A second group of experts uses the chapters as a departure point to analyze current ICU resource allocation at the level of the global medical village. The process is repeated, but with an eye toward the future.