I’m in Israel, home to some of the most innovative care in the world. Doctors here wanted to know if the high-tech tests that are an increasing part of their work helps. A couple of weeks ago, they published their results.
It turns out that in about 90% of cases, it didn’t matter.
A physical exam, the patient’s history, and the basic set of tests that doctors have done for decades was almost always all that was needed to get a diagnosis. As one of the doctors in the study put it, “ basic clinical skills remain a powerful tool, sufficient for achieving an accurate diagnosis in most cases.”
The conventional wisdom is that doctors – at least in the U.S. – order extra tests to protect themselves from getting sued. But this study was done in Israel, where the problem of medical malpractice is nothing like it is in the U.S. American-style defensive medicine can’t be the reason doctors in Israel use so many diagnostic tests.
