This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Goldman, L. Articles by Zaret, B. L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Goldman, L. Articles by Zaret, B. L.

Circulation, Vol 62, 680-687, Copyright © 1980 by American Heart Association

ARTICLES

Ordering patterns and clinical impact of cardiovascular nuclear medicine procedures

L Goldman, AR Feinstein, WP Batsford, LS Cohen, A Gottschalk and BL Zaret

We analyzed the ordering and impact of the first 171 fee-for-service cardiovascular nuclear medicine procedures at one hospital. The ordering physicians said 72% of the study results were useful and 28% contributed to changes in patient management. Experienced cardiology reviewers, however, felt that only 65% of studies were appropriately ordered, that 97% of appropriately ordered studies provided potentially useful information, and that 12% of all studies made important contributions to appropriate changes in patient management. The revieweres were most likely to rate exercise thallium procedures and procedures ordered by physicians from distant hospitals as being appropriately ordered and having important clinical impact. We conclude that (1) ordering physicians and revieweres may disagree substantially in their estimates of the impact of a diagnostic test; and (2) although a test may yield important information in appropriate patients, its total clinical impact will depend on how often it is suitably ordered and used.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G J Herder, H van Tinteren, E F Comans, O S Hoekstra, G J Teule, P E Postmus, U Joshi, and E F Smit Prospective use of serial questionnaires to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) in suspected lung cancer Thorax, January 1, 2003; 58(1): 47 - 51. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				F. M. Giardiello, J. D. Brensinger, G. M. Petersen, M. C. Luce, L. M. Hylind, J. A. Bacon, S. V. Booker, R. D. Parker, and S. R. Hamilton The Use and Interpretation of Commercial APC Gene Testing for Familial Adenomatous Polyposis N. Engl. J. Med., March 20, 1997; 336(12): 823 - 827. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]