Overdiagnosed
by H. Gilbert Welch · first published 2011
3mentions
3recommended by
3HN commenters
2012–2017first – last mentioned
100% recommend
After the criteria used to define osteoporosis were altered, seven million American women were turned into patients-literally overnight. The proliferation of fetal monitoring in the 1970s was associated with a 66 percent increase in the number of women told they needed emergency C-sections, but it did not affect how often babies needed intensive care-or the frequency of infant death. The introduction of prostate cancer screening resulted in over a million additional American men being told they have prostate cancer, and while studies disagree on the question of whether a few have been helped-t
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If you're interested in how our ability to detect cancers (and other diseases like diabetes and osteoporosis) has surged ahead of our ability to know when treatment is effective, I highly recommend Overdiagnosed by Welch, Schwartz, and Woloshin. Right now medical science seems to be at an uncomfortable phase with certain diseases where we can't be sure our treatments will have a greater benefit than the cost…
on “Study of 160k men finds no all-cause mortality benefit from prostate screening” ↗…effectively to prevent morbidity and mortality. If you get a checkup and everything looks OK, you can breathe a sigh of relief and relax. Unfortunately this is all wrong. >A recent book explains why: Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, by Drs. H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa M. Schwartz, and Steven Woloshin. It’s a comprehensive explanation of how test results make people sick and why visiting a…
on “The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests” ↗…understanding of the sensitivity and specificity of a test, then you can take action to maximise the utility of the expected outcome. In many cases, the optimal action is not to test in the first place. "Overdiagnosed" is an interesting book on the subject by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch. A recent piece by him in the NYT gives an idea of his thesis: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/opinion/an-epidemic-of-thy...
on “From hacker to hospice in seven weeks” ↗