Doctors overestimate disease risk: study
US researchers find doctors tend to overstate patients' chances of common illnesses
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.
The participants, made up of resident doctors, attending doctors and nurse practitioners, were surveyed both before testing and after tests came back with