JAMA Internal Medicine: Ultrasonography Topic Collection http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/ en-us Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:48:10 GMT Silverchair editor@archinte.jamanetwork.com webmaster@archinte.jamanetwork.com Diagnostic Testing and the Illusory Reassurance of Normal Results Comment on “Reassurance After Diagnostic Testing With a Low Pretest Probability of Serious Disease” Diagnostic Testing http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1656535 Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT Kroenke K. <span class="paragraphSection">Diagnostic testing is enticing to patients and clinicians. It appears more objective and less pedestrian than a simple clinical interview and physical examination. Medical certainty is seldom solidified until all the tests results are in. Patients anxiously await the telephone call or letter announcing “your tests are all normal.” Indeed, the grander the technology, the more alluring. However, the testing imperative can become addictive. As noted in a 1991 cautionary essay:</span> 173 6 416 417 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.11 http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1656535