Defensive medicine (DM) is a medical care practice which involves changing usual clinical practice to protect the interests of health professionals, ignoring the scientific evidence or therapeutic usefulness of health intervention claims and complaints from patients and/or families. This strategy involves both overuse of treatments (eg, prescription of unnecessary treatments or diagnostic tests, extension of hospital stays) as well as avoidance or limitation thereof, notably in terms of patients suffering from pathologies requiring a complex approach.1

DM has a clear impact on the fairness of the healthcare system, directly influencing effectiveness/efficacy, increasing wasted expenditure and compromising the safety of patients, exposing them to avoidable adverse events (AE).2

According to the …