Medical Uncertainty, Diagnostic Testing, and Legal Liability

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Abstract
Health care cost considerations exert increasing influence today over clinical decision-making. One way to help contain costs while maintaining the quality of health care may be to increase among both physicians and patients an acknowledgment of, and tolerance for, a reasonahle degree of medical uncertainty. By medical uncertainty we mean here those clinical situations in which, based on available data, absolute scientific proof regarding some aspect of a patient's heallh status cannot be obtained.To the extent that acceptance of medical uncertainty and a corresponding restraint among physicians can he encouraged without exposing the physicians to an undue risk of legal liability, all participants in the health care system would benefit from this tolerance. To help provide this encouragement. we will explore the legal implications of medical uncertainty, focusing on diagnostic testing, and argue that our legal system does now and will continue to recognize, tolerate, and perhaps even promote some medical uncertainty in the diagnostic realm.

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