Discussion: I am a COPD patient who often visits doctors. Instead of trying to figure out my situation, I am being sent for countless tests, most of which are unnecessary. Is this a familiar phenomenon?

Idle tests are a sweeping phenomenon in most areas of medicine, not only concerning COPD patients. The phenomenon has several causes: heavy pressure on doctors, patients' expectations of a thorough investigation, fear of lawsuits, and economic reasons.

Intuitively, I thought it was indeed an existing phenomenon. In a Google search, I brought up an article from The New Yorker from 2015 about a wide-ranging phenomenon with health and economic consequences. Has the situation improved since 2015? I doubt enough; the burdens on doctors following the coronavirus crisis have increased dramatically. What are the dimensions of the phenomenon? It's hard to say for sure, but they are probably vast—a possible topic for empirical research. (I estimate that private insurance companies and state health insurance would have been happy to accept the research findings.)

An avalanche of unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and financially. What can we do about it?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/11/overkill-atul-gawande