Antinuclear

Choosing Wisely campaign warns on unnecessary radiation medical procedures

Unnecessary tests: Choosing Wisely campaign targets brain scans, food allergy tests SMH, April 29, 2015   Harriet Alexander  Common medical procedures including brain scans, food allergy tests and long-term reflux medication are unnecessary and possibly harmful for many patients and should be radically reduced, doctors have warned.

Five of the peak specialty medical groups has identified 24 tests and treatments that physicians and patients should question in a national campaign that aims to influence treatment standards in hospitals and medical practices across Australia.

Each college or association has listed five examples, including tests that lead to false positives or expose patients to radiation without generating a useful diagnosis and treatments that new research has proved ineffective…….

The Australian College of Emergency Medicine’s immediate past president Sally McCarthy said 40 to 60 per cent of diagnostic tests were of little or no benefit to patients.

“It’s phenomenal, so it’s in everyone’s interests to not waste resources by diverting them to stuff that doesn’t need to be done,” Dr McCarthy said.

Most of the tests and treatments identified by the colleges were known to be ineffective, but junior doctors and nurses could be more prone to ordering unnecessary tests because they did not want to miss anything, she said……..

The Choosing Wisely campaign, co-ordinated by the not-for-profit organisation NPS MedicineWise, has been modelled on an initiative of the same name launched in the United States in 2012 and has since been adopted in Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.

NPS MedicineWise chief executive Lynn Weekes said few items on the list would be controversial among clinicians, but many recommended them anyway.

The aim of the campaign was to start a conversation.

“But doctors are careful, they’re worried that they’re going to be sued, they do practise a bit of defence medicine,” Dr Weekes said.

“It may be the system is putting pressures on them in terms of the way the hospital works that just makes this the easier route. So it’s a combination of factors.”………http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/unnecessary-tests-choosing-wisely-campaign-targets-brain-scans-food-allergy-tests-20150429-1mv8n3.html

April 30, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, health