This piece in JAMA Internal Medicine looks at the efficacy of promoting patient-centered counseling to reduce use of low-value diagnostic tests.
The mission was “to evaluate the effectiveness of a standardized patient (SP)-based intervention designed to enhance primary care physician (PCP) patient-centeredness and skill in handling patient requests for low-value diagnostic tests.”
The authors concluded that “An SP-based intervention did not improve the patient-centeredness of SP encounters, use of targeted interactional techniques, or rates of low-value test ordering, although SPs were more satisfied with intervention than control residents.”
