title: Physician-Driven Variation in Nonrecommended Services Among Older Adults Diagnosed With Cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Interventions to address overuse of health care services may help reduce costs and improve care. Understanding physician-level variation and behavior patterns can inform such interventions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess patterns of physician ordering of services that tend to be overused in the treatment of patients with cancer. We hypothesized that physicians exhibit consistent behavior.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study of patients 66 years and older diagnosed with cancer between 2004 and 2011, using population-based Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare data to assess physician-level variation in 5 nonrecommended services. Services included imaging for staging and surveillance in low-risk disease, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) after breast-conserving surgery, and extended fractionation schemes for palliation of bone metastases.
  
  
  METHODS
  To assess variation in service use between physicians, we used a random effects model and a logistic regression model with a lag variable to assess whether a physician's use of a service for a prior patient predicts subsequent service use.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cohorts ranged from 3464 to 89 006 patients. The total proportion of patients receiving each service varied from 14% for imaging in staging early breast cancer to 41% in early prostate cancer. From the random effects analysis, we found significant unexplained variation in service use between physicians (P < .001 for each service; ICC, 0.04-0.59). Controlling for case mix, whether a physician ordered a service for the prior patient was highly predictive of service use, with adjusted odds ratios (aORs) ranging from 1.12 (95% CI, 1.07-1.18) for surveillance imaging for patients with breast cancer (28% service use if prior patient had imaging vs 25% if not), to 24.91 (95% CI, 22.86-27.15) for IMRT for whole breast radiotherapy (69% vs 7%, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physicians' utilization of nonrecommended services that tend to be overused exhibit patterns that suggest consistent behavior more than personalized patient care decisions. Reducing overuse may require understanding cognitive drivers of repetitive inappropriate decisions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lipitz-Snyderman
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York3Genentech, California.
authors.forename: Camelia S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Sima
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Coral L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Atoria
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Elena B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Elkin
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York5Department of Urology, Columbia University, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York6Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Blinder
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Chiaojung Jillian
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Katherine S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Panageas
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Bach
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000556:secondary; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental; D000069342:Medical Overuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods*; D010067:Ownership; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018426:SEER Program; D014481:United States