Worried About Malpractice?
Publication Date
12-2016
Abstract
Why do cardiologists and primary care physicians tend to order extra echocardiographic examinations and imaging stress tests? Kini et al.,1 in their study “Association of Liability Concerns with Decisions to Order Echocardiography and Cardiac Stress Tests with Imaging,” try to answer this question, at least for academic health center physicians. Malpractice concerns emerge from this carefully done study as the only definite driver of “may be appropriate” test ordering, outweighing other variables such as risk aversion, practice site, and physician experience. But before we shake our heads in dismay at the deleterious impact of doctors' legitimate malpractice concerns on defensive test ordering and medical costs, let's consider this question from a much broader, multidisciplinary perspective.
Recommended Citation
Benjamin F. Byrd, III, Jim Cooper, & Benjamin J. McMichaels, Worried About Malpractice?, 29 J. Am. Soc. Echocardiogr. 1161 (2016).