Medical tests provide important information to guide clinical management. Overtesting, however, may cause harm to patients and the healthcare system, including through misdiagnosis, false positives, false negatives and overdiagnosis. Clinicians are ultimately responsible for test requests, and are therefore ideally positioned to prevent overtesting and [...]
We examine whether new government criteria designed to reduce overuse of vitamin D testing changed testing rates in Australian women. Although testing initially declined, the reduction was not sustained. Women who had more doctor visits and who had been tested previously were more likely to [...]
Low back pain is a global health problem. In Mexico it is one of the most common musculoskeletal conditions as well as the leading cause of disability. This review provides an overview of the challenges and complexities of managing low back pain in Mexico.
Overuse of diagnostic imaging for patients with low back pain remains common. The underlying beliefs about diagnostic imaging that could drive overuse remain unclear. We synthesised qualitative research that has explored clinician, patient or general public beliefs about diagnostic imaging for low back pain.
This paper aimed to evaluate the effects of information format on intentions to request diagnostic imaging for non-specific low back pain in members of the public. It found that framing information to emphasise potential harms from overdiagnosis reduced intention to request diagnostic imaging for low [...]
Most people are familiar with the concept of undergoing general health checks. This might mean that your doctor talks to you about your medical history and lifestyle including diet, physical activity, alcohol intake and smoking history. This is part of providing holistic care to identify [...]
Imaging reports are the primary method of communicating diagnostic imaging findings between the radiologist and the referring clinician. Guidelines produced by professional bodies provide guidance on content and format of imaging reports, but the extent to which they consider comprehensibility for referring clinicians and their [...]
When a doctor performs an echocardiogram, about one per cent of people will be found to have a 'spongy heart' — typically benign, but sometimes associated with other heart problems. When a more sensitive MRI test is used, the number of people with spongy heart shoots as [...]
The prevalence of LVNC is higher than expected for a rare disease in all population cohorts. There are at least three major factors which appear to strongly influence the high prevalence of LVNC including the type of imaging modality used, the characteristics of the cohort [...]
Genomics is an exciting field that lays the “book of life” open in front of us. It has great potential to improve our understanding of disease, sharpen our diagnostic capability, and provide targeted gene based therapies that could save lives. But with great potential comes [...]