Diagnostic Agreement Among General Practitioners, Residents, and Senior Rheumatologists for Rheumatic Diseases

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the concordance of the diagnoses made by senior rheumatologists and those made by residents in rheumatology and by general practitioners (GPs). Methods In this cohort, 497 patients referred by GPs from August 1, 2018 to December 16, 2019 were evaluated first by a second-year resident in rheumatology. After clinical rounds, the diagnoses by senior rheumatologists were assumed as the criterion standard and defined the prevalence of the rheumatic diseases, divided into 5 groups: rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, other connective tissue diseases and vasculitis, nonautoimmune rheumatic diseases, and nonrheumatic diseases. The follow-up ended on November 30, 2020. We calculated sensibility, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and κ coefficient of the diagnosis by GPs and residents. Results The diagnoses were changed for 58% of the referral letters. Diseases of low complexity, such as fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, accounted for 50% of the diagnoses. Compared with senior rheumatologists, residents in rheumatology had κ> 0.6 for all the groups, whereas GPs had κ
Source: JCR: Journal of Clinical Rheumatology - Category: Rheumatology Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research