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Jeffrey S. Wolfe, MD
Manalapan, NJ

JAMA. 1991;265(4):457.

	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. —

I must strenuously object to Dr Soloway's¹ suggestion that we allow patients to order their own diagnostic laboratory tests.

The diagnosis of an illness or condition is made predominantly by the history and physical examination. Laboratory tests should be based on a careful analysis of these findings along with knowledge concerning the most appropriate test(s), if any, to be done. Factors such as the cost, the likelihood of the test's being helpful, the incidence of false-positive and false-negative results, and the practical effect of the test result on the condition need to be considered. Sophisticated though some of our patients may be (how many patients know a virus from a bacterium?), they do not have the knowledge and training to know when to order an alkaline phosphatase (or was that an acid phosphatase?) or how to interpret the results of a test as simple as . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Deputy Editor (West), and Don Riesenberg, MD, Senior Editor.

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