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Robert McMahon, JD
Washington University School of Medicine St Louis

Patrick Murray, PhD
Barnes Hospital St Louis

JAMA. 1987;257(6):778.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

As Belsey et al¹ comment, new responsibilities and new risks are created for practitioners who develop and use an office laboratory. In addition to the pitfalls related to negligence in performing and interpreting laboratory tests, which they ably discuss, another pitfall is related to conflict of interest.

A physician who maintains an office laboratory or who establishes and shares a laboratory with other physicians may prefer that laboratory to any other (for such reasons as convenience for patients, faster test turnaround time, and financial considerations). He may also delay or omit referral of patient specimens for studies more sophisticated than those the preferred laboratory can perform, which would increase the physician's liability. (This is analogous to liability for failure to refer patients to specialists.)² At the very least, the perception may be created that the physician's financial interest in the laboratory represents a conflict of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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