Unintended consequences: quantifying the benefits, iatrogenic harms and downstream cascade costs of musculoskeletal MRI in UK primary care.

Inappropriate use or overuse of clinical tests such as MRIs can be harmful to patients. This cohort study, including 107 general practitioners across 29 practices, found that only 4.9% of musculoskeletal MRIs were clearly indicated and only 16.7% of results appeared to be correctly interpreted by clinicians, suggesting the potential for significant misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis.