I myself am a PA and have seen the evolution from my side of things. When I was trained ( late 1980’s) the focus was on a comprehensive history and exam, ordering as few diagnostic tests and labs as possible. Unfortunately these days both Medicare and insurance companies have created “metrics” of care ( with significant buy in from the AMA and other health organizations) that pretty much force providers to order certain tests, or otherwise be considered low quality providers. Over time with the ready availability of labs, ultra sound, ct scan and other testing, the value of history and exam has been greatly minimized.
When time with each patient is limited, and reimbursement is linked to a lot of those diagnostic tests, physical examination has fallen by the way side.
Even in my current field of orthopedics which is pretty hands on, even if exam and history clearly indicate the problem, often insurance companies won’t allow you to move forward to surgery without certain diagnostic tests on file. So it sometimes comes down to minimize the exam, order the MRI which is both an insurance company requirement and frequently patient expectation, and move on to the next room.

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Originally posted by Bulldog7972:

Do you do the finger stick or do you use a CGM for testing your blood sugar level?

Primarily the CGM (Abbot Freestyle Libre 2) because it's much more convenient, but I'll finger stick occasionally to get a more accurate reading if the CGM isn't giving me the result I expect. They aren't perfect and sometimes they get out of whack...I also find that I tend to get more artificially high readings at the beginning with a new sensor, and it gradually drops lower over the course of it's two week lifespan.