Evidence map›Paper›PMID 19470719›Full record

ArticleMedical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making

Diagnostic certainty as a source of medical practice variation in coronary heart disease: results from a cross-national experiment of clinical decision making.

Karen E Lutfey, Carol L Link, Lisa D Marceau, Richard W Grant, Ann Adams, Sara Arber, Johannes Siegrist, Markus Bönte, Olaf von dem Knesebeck, John B McKinlay

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.1field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Physician clinical information technology and health care disparities.Medical care research and review : MCRR · 2009
    Trial
  4. Article
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  7. Review
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  13. The effect of imaging on the clinical management of breast pain.Journal of general internal medicine · 2012
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.

Karen E LutfeyNew England Research Institutes, Watertown, Massachusetts 02472, USA. klutfey@neriscience.com
Carol L Link
Lisa D Marceau
Richard W Grant
Ann Adams
Sara Arber
Johannes Siegrist
Markus Bönte
Olaf von dem Knesebeck
John B McKinlay
New England Research Institutes · USUniversität Hamburg · DEHeinrich Heine University Düsseldorf · DEMassachusetts General Hospital · USUniversity of Surrey · GBUniversity of Warwick · GB

Funding

CLINICAL DECISIONS WITH OLDER PATIENTS--US UK COMPARISONR01AG016747 · NIA · NEW ENGLAND RESEARCH INSTITUTES, INC. · PI MCKINLAY, JOHN B · 2000 to 2006
$2.1M
NIA NIH HHS AG16747NIA NIH HHS R01 AG016747
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The authors examined physician diagnostic certainty as one reason for cross-national medical practice variation. Data are from a factorial experiment conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, estimating 384 generalist physicians' diagnostic and treatment decisions for videotaped vignettes of actor patients depicting a presentation consistent with coronary heart disease (CHD). Despite identical vignette presentations, the authors observed significant differences across health care systems, with US physicians being the most certain and German physicians the least certain (P < 0.0001). Physicians were least certain of a CHD diagnoses when patients were younger and female (P < 0.0086), and there was additional variation by health care system (as represented by country) depending on patient age (P < 0.0100) and race (P < 0.0021). Certainty was positively correlated with several clinical actions, including test ordering, prescriptions, referrals to specialists, and time to follow-up.

Indexed as

Decision MakingPractice Patterns, Physicians'AgedCoronary DiseaseFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedUncertainty

Identifiers

PMID19470719
PMCPMC3755454
OpenAlexW2161932708

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.