Exploring the Risks of Overdiagnosis: How the Pursuit of Health May Be Making People Sick

maisie: Well-written by a team of doctors. Makes you aware of what's going on in a very readable form.

United Kingdom on Jul 17, 2023

Yvonne mcconnell: Like

Canada on Mar 22, 2023

Eduardo Cruz: The book shows how image scans and other health tests may create healthy patients with the sole purpose of making money. PSA low limits will induce unnecessary prostate biopsies, excess RMI may lead to useless and risky surgeries. A must read for doctors and patients as well.

Brazil on Jan 19, 2023

David Falango: Ótimo livro. Faz uso da melhor evidência possível para desmistificar práticas que oneram o sistema de saúde e prejudicam pessoas desnecessariamente.

Brazil on Nov 26, 2022

Thierry Landrieu: The subject is much more complex than I thought . But the author doesn't hesitate to come back at length to reinforce or understanding , and while it could feel tiresome , it is in fact necessary to understand the self-reinforcing nature of overdiagnosis .
Very good and intelligent book , but hard to summarize . Because ..... The subject is rather counter-intuitive .
Reading it 10 years after publication, it allowed me to understand a bit better our new covid era , were you are deemed to be sick after a pcr test , even if you feel perfectly fine - while in fact you just may be potentialy contagious ( which is enough to incite you to stay at home )

France on Jun 20, 2021

Theresa Welsh: This book will probably appeal to people like me, who have already been questioning the value of endless screening tests, but I hope others will read it as well. It is a large dose of sanity in the face of all the pressure from doctors, advocacy groups for various diseases, public service ads and commercials from companies offering screening tests who tell us we need to be screened because "early detection saves lives." Usually they throw in some stories of people who got screened, got treated and are still alive. They are all quoted saying "Early detection saved my life."

But did it? Or did it just turn them into patients years before their "disease" would have manifested itself? Worse yet, maybe that tiny growth detected on the X-ray would NEVER have turned into actual disease. In that case, they did not need any treatment and may have been harmed by the treatment they received. Dr. Welch calls this "overdiagnosis."

Dr. Welch points out that these "success" stories lead to more screening which leads to more useless treatment. Proponents often cite the increased "cure" rate of those who are screened versus those who are not. Logically, the time between diagnosis and...

United States on Jun 06, 2012

Dr. Terrence McGarty: Over Diagnosed is an interesting tale. At first I approached this with some concern as if it was just another one of those trend setting books by some physicians seeking to push the latest idea. After a few pages I was hooked and saw that Welch was in my opinion spot on. Yes there is too much diagnosis. As anyone who is in the medical area knows one of the most costly machines ever invented was the CAT scan. I recall that the second such machine went into Mass General I believe in 72 or 73, and was immediately put to use in determining if a stroke was a block or a bleed. In those days this was a real issue and the CAT scan allowed for a rapid and accurate determination and helped save lives. Then its use expanded. Today with a CAT scan, as Welch states, we can find things that we never ever suspected, and then what?

Chapters 1 and 2 set the scene for what the authors intend to present. Namely that there are lots of over diagnosis out there and for lots of reasons. Part of the author's presentation is that we have defined more disease. Take the example of Diabetes, it was fasting blood sugar of 140 and now we start treatment at 100! The reality is that we should really look...

United States on Mar 02, 2011