Almost one-third of medical procedures misused, Canadian study finds

A new study that looked at more than 200 medical procedures in Canada found they were being used inappropriately almost one-third of the time.

The finding, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, suggests that health-care resources aren't being used as effectively as they might be and that patient care in some cases might be suffering.

"We're wasting scarce Canadian resources when we're prescribing treatments or diagnostics that are not needed," said lead author Janet Squires of the University of Ottawa.

Squires and her colleagues analyzed 174 separate studies published between 2007 and 2021 that found problems with the use of clinical practices such as lab tests, referrals and imaging. The study compares how patients were actually assessed and treated with the established clinical guidelines in place at the time for 228 procedures.

"We found, on average, 30 per cent of them were being used inappropriately at least some of the time," Squires said.