Informal curbside or corridor consultations have been an established yet invisible part of the medical environment. "Questions such as 'Can I get your thoughts?' or 'Can I run something by you?' are familiar to many of us who specialize in purely 'cognitive' disciplines." In a study of physicians in Rhode Island in 1998, 87.5% (175/200) of subspecia-lists reported participating in at least one curbside consultation during the previous week and subspecialist physicians received an average of 3.6 requests per week. In a prospective study within the discipline of infectious diseases, over a one-year period, the service was consulted officially about 532 patients and unofficially about 269 patients. Only 31 of the 269 (11.5%) were subsequently referred for formal consultation.
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