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Stephen C. Schoenbaum, MD, MPH

JAMA. 1993;269(6):794-796.

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

In 1987 and 1988 the Health Program at RAND, Santa Monica, Calif, published a series of articles on the appropriateness of various medical procedures that had been performed between 1979 and 1982.^1-3 The RAND investigators had developed appropriateness criteria by a specific method in which panels of nine experts reviewed relevant medical literature and then rated a series of clinical scenarios (indications). When the criteria sets were applied to actual patient records, it appeared that a significant percentage of the procedures were unnecessary. The medical and general public pounced on these reports. At last there was evidence that substantial savings might be achieved in health care; and since the savings would derive from the elimination of unnecessary care, there should actually be a concomitant increase in the quality of care.

See also pp 753, 761, and 766.

In this issue of THE JOURNAL there are three more articles^4-6 . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Harvard Community Health Plan Inc, Brookline, Mass.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Harvard Community Health Plan Inc, 10 Brookline Place W, Brookline, MA 02146 (Dr Schoenbaum).

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