5 haematology related tests not to do

Medicines

7 Dec 2015

The American Society of Hematology has released a list of five haematology-related tests and procedures that it says all haematologists should consider NOT doing.

The list of five were presented at this week’s ASH’s Annual Meeting this week and are based on on recommendations from other medical societies taking part in the Choosing Wisely® campaign.

They include:

  • Don’t image for suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) without moderate or high pre-test probability of PE. – American College of Radiology;
  • Don’t routinely order thrombophilia testing on patients undergoing a routine infertility evaluation.  – American Society for Reproductive Medicine;
  • Don’t perform repetitive complete blood count (CBC) and chemistry testing in the face of clinical and lab stability. – Society for Hospital Medicine – Adult Hospital Medicine;
  • Don’t transfuse red blood cells for iron deficiency without hemodynamic instability. – American Association of Blood Banks; and
  • Avoid using positron emission tomography (PET) or PET-CT scanning as part of routine follow-up care to monitor for a cancer recurrence in asymptomatic patients who have finished initial treatment to eliminate the cancer unless there is high-level evidence that such imaging will change the outcome. – American Society of Clinical Oncology

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