Inappropriate Lab Testing Throughout Medicine

A new study examining 15 years’ worth of published research reveals some surprising findings about the humble blood test. Led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and reported on-line today in the journal PLOS ONE, the large-scale analysis of 1.6 million results from 46 of medicine’s 50 most commonly ordered lab tests finds that, on average, 30 percent of all tests are probably unnecessary. Even more surprising, the results suggest that equally as many necessary tests may be going unordered.

“While working with my clinical colleagues around the hospital, I often found myself wondering about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of all of these tests. In developing this study, my coauthors and I wanted to learn more about overall lab test utilization so that we could better understand how and where errors were occurring in this extremely high-volume activity.”

Read more:
Large-Scale Analysis Describes Inappropriate Lab Testing Throughout Medicine

Source: BIDMC


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