Paper
Decision-making in General Practice: The Importance of a Near Patient Test When Choosing Medical Actions
- Authors:
- Geir Thue; Siri Fauli Munkerud
- Abstract
- There is a lack of studies on the impact of near patient test results in primary care, which should be an important prerequisite for reimbursing such tests. Our main purpose is therefore to develop a model to study what effect the results of a near patient test may have on medical actions in primary care. A clinical vignette, describing a young woman with dyspepsia was sent to GPs in Norway, who were asked to suggest actions in response to either a negative or a positive result of the Helicobacter pylori rapid test (HPRT). Discrete choice analysis with multinomial logit models was used to analyse the choice of medical actions. We find that the result of the rapid test has a major influence on actions suggested, and an important prerequisite for reimbursing such tests is fulfilled. Therefore the analytical quality of test results is likely to affect patients’ health and social costs.
- Keywords
- Discrete Choice models; Decision-making; Primary Health Care
- StartPage
- 48
- EndPage
- 52
- Doi
- 10.5963/PHF0102003