title: Appropriate use of screening and diagnostic tests to foster high-value, cost-conscious care.
abstract: Unsustainable rising health care costs in the United States have made reducing costs while maintaining high-quality health care a national priority. The overuse of some screening and diagnostic tests is an important component of unnecessary health care costs. More judicious use of such tests will improve quality and reflect responsible awareness of costs. Efforts to control expenditures should focus not only on benefits, harms, and costs but on the value of diagnostic tests-meaning an assessment of whether a test provides health benefits that are worth its costs or harms. To begin to identify ways that practicing clinicians can contribute to the delivery of high-value, cost-conscious health care, the American College of Physicians convened a workgroup of physicians to identify, using a consensus-based process, common clinical situations in which screening and diagnostic tests are used in ways that do not reflect high-value care. The intent of this exercise is to promote thoughtful discussions about these tests and other health care interventions to promote high-value, cost-conscious care.
authors.affiliation: Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Qaseem
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alguire
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dallas
authors.forename: Lawrence E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Feinberg
authors.forename: Faith T
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.forename: Carrie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Horwitch
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Humphrey
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: LeBlond
authors.forename: Darilyn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moyer
authors.forename: Jeffrey G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Wiese
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weinberger
mesh_terms: D003363:Cost Control; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000191:economics*; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000191:economics; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures / Q000191:economics