I am in agreement that we have turned our patients in our healthcare system in to consumers. Similar to the lady in the video which despite being turned down by every surgeon in the US, decided to fly overseas to undergo the surgery she wanted and ended up dying i encountered a couple of similar examples. I was speaking to a family member of mine during this week which is an elderly lady who was complaining of pain at one of her PIP joints. Without going in to details of her history, she had no significant history of any connective tissue disease and most probably has OA. Despite this she was convincing me that she needs to have rheumatoid factor done to exclude RA. I explained to her that this test solely would have no value for her given that it can be positive in normal people and wound need to be ordered among a work up of several other investigations. After a detailed explanation and even taking time to explain the criteria to diagnose RA she was still convinced that she needs to have it done. This is an example of how patients can pursue unnecessary investigations which will lead to a compound effect of imaging and perhaps intervention that was undue to start of with.
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