Little is known about the consumption of medical and surgical services by the most informed consumer in the health care market: the physician-patient.

Such knowledge should be important for the understanding of the role of information on consumption, supplier-induced demand, the doctor-patient relationship, unnecessary medical services, and the adequacy of professional practices to the real health needs of the « ordinary patient ».

We measured by questionnaire the standardized consumption of seven common surgical procedures.

Except for appendectomy, the age- and sex-standardized consumption for each of the common surgical procedures was always significantly higher in the general population than for the « gold standard » of physician-patients.

The data suggest that (a) contrary to prior research, doctors have much lower rates of surgery than does the general population; and (b) in a fee-for-services health care market without financial barriers to medical care, less-informed patients are greater consumers of common surgical procedures.