THE VALUE OF AUTOPSY FROM A CLINICAL POINT-OF-VIEW - A SURVEY OF 250 GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS AND HOSPITAL CLINICIAN IN THE COUNTY OF SOR-TRONDELAG, NORWAY

An enquiry into clinicians' attitudes to autopsies was conducted by qu estionnaire sent to 166 general practitioners in the county of Sor-Tro ndelag in Norway and to 186 clinicians working at the University Hospi tal of Trondheim. It was considered especially important for us to inc lude general practitioners. As the result of a government decision tak en at the end of 1994, autopsies requested by general practitioners on patients dying outside hospitals have from January 1995 been covered by national health insurance. Answers were obtained from 250 doctors: 110 general practitioners and 140 hospital physicians. One hundred and seventy-nine (73.1%, n=245) felt that the possibility of having autop sies performed was of great importance in their daily work. Autopsy wa s considered to be a very important means of quality assurance in the health care system by 158 (66.4%, n=238). One hundred and two (41.2%, n=247) answered that improvements in medicine and technology during th e last decades had not reduced the importance of autopsy. One hundred and twenty-two (81.3%, n=150) felt that especially computer tomography (CT) had reduced the value of autopsy. Among the general practitioner s, 73 (68.9%, n=106) welcomed the opportunity to have non-forensic aut opsies performed on patients who died outside hospitals. Our study sho wed differences in the attitudes of clinicians towards autopsies, but our results still indicate that the value of autopsy for furthering cl inical knowledge is acknowledged by most clinicians.