Defensive medicine and diagnostic testing

Defensive medicine often involves the excessive ordering of diagnostic tests. Constantly aware of the risk of malpractice liability, physicians turn to diagnostic tests with the goal of reducing the likelihood of error. Findings reported in literature suggest that medical malpractice contributes significantly to the increased use of diagnostic testing and related costs. It has also been demonstrated that defensive testing not only increases costs but harms patients to a degree that depends on the risk incurred by the test itself, its false-positive and false-negative rates, the benefits and risks of available therapies, and the prior probability of disease. Several solutions have been proposed in the attempt to address this issue, but the physician's competence and training appear to be key factors, data from clinical trials showing that education and feedback for improving test-ordering tendencies have a prolonged effect. Particularly in the field of laboratory medicine, increasing attention is being paid to improving demand management in order to minimize inappropriate testing.