Topic Discussion: "Kicking the Tar baby" effect

As medical lab tests become cheaper and more easily accessible to a click of a mouse or tick of a pen, we forget the " tar baby" effect.  A test that might appear " safe" and make you feel " complete" when you see a patient, might have drastic consequences when it leads to anxiety and frustration and can have a mountainous effect leading to other tests.

As our urges tell us to order these tests, we have to control and look at the clinical picture and decide - is it necessary? Its also hard to argue these points in the current era of malpractice and law suits and the need for the physician to have done a "complete workup".  Its a sad state of affairs but this "tar baby" effect is not going away anytime soon.

And this applies to Nephrology as well!

Take a look at this fascinating article shared to me by a friend

Ref:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3578335