Ockham’s Razor: The Application of Parsimonious Medicine in Allergy/Immunology

The spectacular advances of modern medicine have distracted clinicians from applying the age-old principles of thorough history and examination followed by only ordering tests relevant to the patient’s presentation. The most obvious diagnosis is the most likely and should be addressed first. Ockham’s razor, or parsimonious medicine, should be applied because plurality of diagnoses is less likely than a single explanation. Component-resolved diagnostics and biological therapies for allergy/immune-mediated diseases have been highly effective when used by specialist allergy services. However, they are accessed too easily and frequently, either before diagnostically appropriate allergy skin testing and challenge have been employed or before the reasons for poor disease control have been investigated. The current fashion to test for vitamin D insufficiency in patients with poorly controlled allergic diseases has rarely achieved benefit but significantly increased costs. There are considerable health/economic benefits from following the proven value of a thorough clinical history, examination, focused allergy/immunology testing, and the judicious use of Ockham’s razor.