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What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions

BACKGROUND: Growth in use and overuse of diagnostic imaging significantly impacts the quality and costs of health care services. What are the modifiable factors for increasing and unnecessary use of radiological services? Various factors have been indentified, but little is known about their relativ...

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Autores principales: Lysdahl, Kristin B, Hofmann, Bjørn M
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2749824/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19723302
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-9-155
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author Lysdahl, Kristin B
Hofmann, Bjørn M
author_facet Lysdahl, Kristin B
Hofmann, Bjørn M
author_sort Lysdahl, Kristin B
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Growth in use and overuse of diagnostic imaging significantly impacts the quality and costs of health care services. What are the modifiable factors for increasing and unnecessary use of radiological services? Various factors have been indentified, but little is known about their relative impact. Radiologists hold key positions for providing such knowledge. Therefore the purpose of this study was to obtain radiologists' perspective on the causes of increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations. METHODS: In a mailed questionnaire radiologist members of the Norwegian Medical Association were asked to rate potential causes of increased investigation volume (fifteen items) and unnecessary investigations (six items), using five-point-scales. Responses were analysed by using summary statistics and Factor Analysis. Associations between variables were determined using Students' t-test, Spearman rank correlation and Chi-Square tests. RESULTS: The response rate was 70% (374/537). The highest rated causes of increasing use of radiological investigations were: a) new radiological technology, b) peoples' demands, c) clinicians' intolerance for uncertainty, d) expanded clinical indications, and e) availability. 'Over-investigation' and 'insufficient referral information' were reported the most frequent causes of unnecessary investigations. Correlations between causes of increasing and unnecessary radiology use were identified. CONCLUSION: In order to manage the growth in radiological imaging and curtail inappropriate investigations, the study findings point to measures that influence the supply and demand of services, specifically to support the decision-making process of physicians.
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spelling pubmed-27498242009-09-24 What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions Lysdahl, Kristin B Hofmann, Bjørn M BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Growth in use and overuse of diagnostic imaging significantly impacts the quality and costs of health care services. What are the modifiable factors for increasing and unnecessary use of radiological services? Various factors have been indentified, but little is known about their relative impact. Radiologists hold key positions for providing such knowledge. Therefore the purpose of this study was to obtain radiologists' perspective on the causes of increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations. METHODS: In a mailed questionnaire radiologist members of the Norwegian Medical Association were asked to rate potential causes of increased investigation volume (fifteen items) and unnecessary investigations (six items), using five-point-scales. Responses were analysed by using summary statistics and Factor Analysis. Associations between variables were determined using Students' t-test, Spearman rank correlation and Chi-Square tests. RESULTS: The response rate was 70% (374/537). The highest rated causes of increasing use of radiological investigations were: a) new radiological technology, b) peoples' demands, c) clinicians' intolerance for uncertainty, d) expanded clinical indications, and e) availability. 'Over-investigation' and 'insufficient referral information' were reported the most frequent causes of unnecessary investigations. Correlations between causes of increasing and unnecessary radiology use were identified. CONCLUSION: In order to manage the growth in radiological imaging and curtail inappropriate investigations, the study findings point to measures that influence the supply and demand of services, specifically to support the decision-making process of physicians. BioMed Central 2009-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2749824/ /pubmed/19723302 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-9-155 Text en Copyright © 2009 Lysdahl and Hofmann; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lysdahl, Kristin B
Hofmann, Bjørn M
What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions
title What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions
title_full What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions
title_fullStr What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions
title_full_unstemmed What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions
title_short What causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions
title_sort what causes increasing and unnecessary use of radiological investigations? a survey of radiologists' perceptions
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2749824/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19723302
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-9-155
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