Choosing wisely in clinical practice: embracing critical thinking, striving for safer care.
Overtreatment and overuse can have unanticipated consequences, ranging from patient anxiety while awaiting test results to medical complications. The authors identify several factors that can contribute to patient overtreatment (fear of uncertainty, cognitive bias, applying low-quality evidence, and overfocusing on diagnosis). Interventions to overcome these issues include educating clinicians that uncertainty is a part of medicine and shifting to a focus on patient-centered management rather than focusing on identifying a diagnosis.