Do Physician Athletes Believe in Pre-Exercise Examinations and Stress Tests?

We recently saw a patient in his early forties who displayed a six-page narrative report of his pre-exercise physical examination, which included cardiac stress tests and pulmonary-function studies. He had paid $400 for this evaluation, knowing in advance that he was in excellent health. He related that most of the executives in his company were making appointments for similar evaluations: "These doctors specialize in pre-exercise physical and stress tests."Most physicians are sensitive to the increasing pressure to contain medical costs and economize in tests and treatments, and many have strong reservations about encouraging expensive medical evaluations for healthy people . . .