The evidence suggests too much medicine is doing us harm, particularly when treating knee pain, back pain, chest pain and screening for prostate cancer.
Articles on Overdiagnosis
Displaying 61 - 80 of 95 articles
To avoid ineffective treatments, we need a new way to identify and reduce questionable care. A new Grattan Institute report shows how to do it.
By forgetting that medicine postpones death rather than saving lives, we persuade ourselves it might somehow keep extending our life and come to view death as a failure of medicine.
While the extent of the problem is unclear, we know that hospitals doctors overuse diagnostic tests. Involving patients in decision-making may be one of the best options for improving the situation.
In October 2013, Catalyst broadcast a segment highly critical of statins, a class of drug used for lowering cholesterol.
Researchers have been talking about the dangers of overdiagnosis for some time. But now a national survey shows most people aren’t told about the risk it poses to their health – and they want to know.
Complex algorithms and personalised medicine promise a new way of diagnosing disease.
Not so long ago, getting an x-ray for acute back pain was the norm. And they are still used far more frequently than is necessary.
Screening for prostate cancer using the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test for men with no symptoms is controversial: experts are divided, and Australians are not routinely well-informed. Prostate cancer…
Across 38 years in tobacco control, I have been asked countless times in media interviews if I ever smoked. It’s often an early question. I always unhesitatingly explain that I did: I stopped in my mid…
“It might do me some good and it won’t hurt to give it a go.” How often have you heard a phrase like this? Most people have naïve optimism about medical care. That’s the finding of a systematic review…
A panel convened by medical journal BMJ to investigate whether it was right to correct rather than retract two pieces featuring a mistake about side effects from statins has endorsed the journal’s decision…
Earlier this year, leading American cancer scientists called for a set of changes to deal with the problem of over-diagnosis and over-treatment caused by cancer screening. Efforts to raise awareness and…
Social media can help raise awareness of health issues, engaging people in discussion and encouraging them to take action. But thoughtless adherence to such trends has the potential to cause harm. New…
Antipsychotic drugs are usually considered to be one of the 20th century’s major medical breakthroughs. They are often believed to be so effective that they brought about the closure of the old mental…
Screening older people for minor memory changes will lead to over-diagnosis and potentially harmful treatments for conditions…
Anyone, it seems, can create an epidemic. Witness a recent article in the Fairfax papers that provides “startling” news about the large number of Australians with high cholesterol who don’t even know they…
Have you ever wondered how diseases get defined? How “high” does your blood pressure have to be before it’s called “high blood pressure”? How “low” does bone density have to be before it’s “osteoporosis…
Kidneys are probably not a subject most of us think about too much – but right now they’re at the centre of a global medical controversy. In a paper published in the British Medical Journal today, we explain…
When they were introduced over 20 years ago, national breast screening programs were a milestone in public health. They were based on evidence from randomised trials that screening saved lives. But there…
Top contributors
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Senior Research Manager, University of Sydney and Honorary Assistant Professor, Bond University
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Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney
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Clinical Professorial Research Fellow, Australian Women and Girls' Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland
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NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, School of Public Health, University of Sydney
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Professor of Medicine, Bond University
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Professor of Public Health, University of Sydney
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Professor of Psychology, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor, Bond University
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Professor of Public Health, Bond University
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Assistant Professor | NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, Bond University
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Professor School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
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Emeritus Professor in Public Health, University of Sydney
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Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Bond University
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Professor & Deputy Director, Women's Health Program, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
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NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow in Reproductive Health, School of Public Health, University of Sydney