[maxxxxx]

"There is, in fact, no system. There are systems, but mostly they don’t talk to each other. I have to do that."

That's something I have noticed too. My girlfriend had to visit several doctors for a problem. One was confused about the notes of the other doctor so I proposed to call and figure it out together. The doctor seemed really perplexed about this suggestion and instead ordered the same series of tests again.

[yborg]

Because ordering a redundant set of tests generates revenue. Just consulting another doctor wastes both of their time better spent ordering up redundant tests and quickly moving on to the next victim that can have tests ordered.

[rdtsc]

Yap that's what I realized as well. It is a complicated beast in that some things happen because there is a profit attached to it, some happen because there is regulation requiring it.

Unnecessary tests are not even the worst, unnecessary face and nose surgery as suggested by one of the doctors for a family members was really terrifying. Good thing we decided to spend more money an time to get second opinions.

[nradov]

Doctors have learned through experience to mistrust data from other sources because it's so often incorrect or incomplete. So they often think that the fastest and safest course of action is to start over from scratch with the patient history, lab tests, etc. One partial solution is the growth of large integrated delivery networks which combine a bunch of medical specialties in a single organization sharing patient records. That way there's more trust and lower barriers to communication.

[u801e]

Shouldn't the results of the previous tests be part of the medical record? If so, then the other doctor should have been able to view the results.

[maxxxxx]

I don't know. It should but something wasn't clear. The point is that for some reason they didn't make a quick call to clarify and seemed genuinely confused about this suggestion. Instead they ran the tests again.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

I have a hypotheses. My experience with doctors (that is, general practitioners) is that they think very highly of themselves but usually aren't actually that good at their job. Consequently, they believe they know everything and other doctors know nothing.

It's possible I've just had a lot of bad doctors though.