Cardiologists avoid angioplasties in risky cases

New research seems to offer evidence that physicians avoid riskier procedures when data on their performance is made public. A study released today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that cardiologists in Michigan, a state with no reporting law, are far more likely to perform angioplasties on high-risk patients than their counterparts in New York, a state where reporting has been required for a decade. The mortality rate in Michigan was approximately twice that of the New York state rate.

"Nobody anticipated this dark side of public reporting when it was first established in New York State," comments study co-author Donald L. Brown, chief of cardiovascular medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital.

- see this story from New York Newsday

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