Physicians' views of the relative importance of thirty medical innovations.

In response to a mail survey, 225 leading general internists provided their opinions of the relative importance to patients of thirty medical innovations. They also provided information about themselves and their practices. Their responses yielded a mean score and a variability score for each innovation. Mean scores were significantly higher for innovations in procedures than in medications and for innovations to treat cardiovascular disease than for those to treat other diseases. The rankings were similar across subgroups of respondents, but the evaluations of a few innovations were significantly related to physicians' age. The greatest variability in response was usually related to the physician's patient mix.