Improving accuracy of diagnostic studies in a world with limited resources: a road ahead

The worldwide macroeconomics is only now recovering from an unprecedented economic crisis, which has profoundly changed the organization of several national healthcare systems around the globe (1). In most industrialized and emerging countries, health care expenditure represents an increasing part of the gross domestic product (GDP), exhibiting a growth rate that has largely exceeded other sectors of economy, and ultimately constitutes one of the largest components (up to 10-12%) of national budgets (2,3). Due to remarkable technological advances in diagnostics and targeted therapeutics, most healthcare systems are now squeezed between costs that continue to increase, especially for hospital care and medications, and funding from national governments that progressively decreases. The issue of how to redesign the entire system around a more efficient provision of high quality care is hence crucial for both private and public payers.