– FLORENCE, 26 NOV – A database for comparing the costs of the treatments provided with the results was presented this morning by the Italian Society of General Medicine (Simg), on the occasion of the 26th SIMG congress in Florence. In the database, 10 years of medical records relating to one million patients were collected, data then cross-referenced with economic data to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the treatments and visits prescribed. "We are the first profession that can account for everything it does and now it is measurable also in the relationship with the results obtained", explained Claudio Cricelli, president of Simg. “We have observed – he added – that many procedures are not correct. For example, the measurement of cholesterol is prescribed to those over seventy, when it is of little use. Instead, the first visit should be carried out in adolescence and then from the age of 30 onwards. We have recorded data of overdiagnosis and overtreatment which lead to a waste of resources”.
ANSA – 11/26/2009
