Do Surgeons Treat Their Patients Like They Would Treat Themselves?

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is substantial unexplained geographical and surgeon-to-surgeon variation in rates of surgery. One would expect surgeons to treat patients and themselves similarly based on best evidence and accounting for patient preferences.

Questions/purposes

(1) Are surgeons more likely to recommend surgery when choosing for a patient than for themselves? (2) Are surgeons less confident in deciding for patients than for themselves?

Methods

Two hundred fifty-four (32%) of 790 Science of Variation Group (SOVG) members reviewed 21 fictional upper extremity cases (eg, distal radius fracture, De Quervain tendinopathy) for which surgery is optional answering two questions: (1) What treatment would you choose/recommend: operative or nonoperative? (2) On a scale from 0 to

SUBMITTER: Janssen SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4586191 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature