title: Yearly Clinical Laboratory Test Expenditures for Different Medical Specialties in a Major Canadian City.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Very little is known about the relative contributions of physician specialty groups and individual physicians to overall clinical laboratory expenditures. The objectives of this study were to determine the costs of clinical laboratory test expenditures attributable to 30 medical specialties and the associated per capita physician expenditures for an entire major Canadian city. Only chemistry, hematology, and microbiology tests were included in this study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort study involving all physicians in Calgary, Canada, and surrounding areas (n = 3,499) and secondary data on laboratory test orders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data were obtained on approximately 20 million test requests. The mean clinical laboratory test expenditure, in Canadian dollars, per physician was $27,945 for all physicians combined. Total expenditures by primary care physicians (family physicians and general practitioners) accounted for 58% of total expenditures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was wide variation in clinical laboratory test expenditures among specialties and on a per capita basis within medical specialties.
authors.affiliation: From the Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Christopher.naugler@cls.ab.ca.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Naugler
authors.affiliation: Family Medicine, and.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Family Medicine, and.
authors.forename: Tanvir Chowdhury
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Turin
authors.affiliation: Calgary Laboratory Services, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Maggie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vaska
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D064790:Clinical Laboratory Services / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013038:Specialization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Clinical chemistry; Informatics; Management/administration