Doctors overestimate disease risk: study

US researchers find doctors tend to overstate patients' chances of common illnesses 
Reuters Health

Doctors may overestimate the likelihood that patients will be diagnosed with diseases commonly seen in primary care, a study suggests.

Researchers asked 723 health practitioners in the US to estimate the probability of diagnosis for four scenarios commonly seen in general practice — pneumonia, cardiac ischaemia, breast cancer screening, and urinary tract infections.