Medical test

A medical test is a kind of medical procedure performed to detect, diagnose, or monitor diseases, disease processes, susceptibility, and determine a course of treatment.

There are risks and benefits with every medical test. The risks include overdiagnosis, missed disagnosis, and risks from the test, such as exposure to ionizing radiation from X-rays or potential infection after a blood draw. For common medical tests, these risks are very small. Medical tests should not be performed unless the expected benefit exceeds the expected risks.