Researchers evaluate the medical practice patterns of primary care physicians

Harmful medical practices, such as inappropriate prescribing of opioids and racial and income-based discrimination in clinical settings, can vary across medical practices and individuals.

Patients may find that even common primary care health services, such as having breast x-rays or a referral to a heart or lung specialist, can vary greatly depending on your doctor or doctor. your clinic.

These changes in medical practice can adversely affect the quality, equity and cost of a person’s health care; however, it is not clear whether these differences can be attributed to individual differences, from one doctor to another or to changes in your doctor’s individual practice over time, perhaps as responding to trends in clinical leadership or advances in diagnostic technologists.

Is it personal difference or change over time? A group of Israeli researchers attempted to answer this question in a retrospective cohort study using a decade of data from the largest health care provider in southern Israel.

This study shows that differences between physician use patterns are significantly more pronounced than changes within individual physician practice patterns over a decade. Researchers evaluated the medical practice patterns of 251 primary care physicians, including levels of imaging tests, heart tests, laboratory tests, and specialist visits.

After adjustment for different patient and clinical symptoms, usage pattern differences remain high, while individual physician patterns over time appear stable. The authors suggest that the personal behavioral characteristics of medical physicians may help explain changes across patterns of practice.