GPs can reliably predict which patients have cancer using their ‘gut feeling’, study reveals
FAMILY doctors can reliably predict which patients have cancer using “gut feeling”, a study reveals.
Tests were four-times more likely to result in a diagnosis when GPs noted their instinct in referrals to specialists.
The move to more video consultations as a result of Covid has now sparked fears doctors will miss these vital cues.
Researcher Brian Nicholson, from the University of Oxford, said: “We found research that suggests gut feelings are more effective at identifying people with cancer than the symptoms and signs used in guidelines.
“We wanted to understand what leads to a GP having a gut feeling in case the guidelines could be improved.
“Our findings emphasise that GPs collect and interpret a large amount of information about their patient in a short period of time.
“Together these pieces of information can lead to a gut feeling that something is wrong. Only some of this information is included in current guidelines.”
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Dr Jonathan Leach, from the Royal College of GPs, said: “GPs consider a huge variety of factors when making a patient diagnosis.
“As well as more obvious physical symptoms, non-verbal cues can often indicate that something is wrong – not necessarily what the patient has made an appointment to speak about.
“This ‘gut feeling’ or intuition is something that GPs develop by having close, trusting relationships with patients that are often built over time, and isn’t something that should be ignored.”
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