WITH neither the time nor the resources available to prevent, detect, or treat every disorder in every patient, which preventive, diagnostic, or therapeutic interventions should take priority? When a physician has a few spare minutes to spend with a patient, should that time be devoted to a blood pressure check, a counseling session about dietary fat, an inquiry about possible symptoms of transient cerebral ischemia, or a demonstration of how to use nicotine chewing gum?Plenty of experts are quick to tell us how we should spend this valuable time; there are now even task forces and professional review bodies . . .
Laupacis et al. (Thu,) studied this question.