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Articles on Choosing Wisely

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Colonoscopies are on the rise in Australia. from shutterstock.com

Needless procedures: when is a colonoscopy necessary?

A colonoscopy is usually done to diagnose bowel cancer. It is an invasive procedure with risks such as bowel perforation. It’s important to only have the test if you’re likely to benefit.
Back pain affects one-quarter of Australians. from shutterstock.com

Needless treatments: spinal fusion surgery for lower back pain is costly and there’s little evidence it’ll work

Rates of spinal fusion surgery for back pain are on the rise. This is despite little evidence that it’s an effective procedure and studies showing many will have revision surgery within ten years.
Providing a sample for a genetic test might not actually give you the health answers you’re looking for. Canadian Blood Services/flickr

Genetic testing isn’t a crystal ball for your health

Testing some genes for Alzheimer’s disease, coeliac disease and folate conversion does not lead to improved health outcomes, and may create anxiety or false hope amongst patients.
Among the 61 recommendations is: ‘Don’t order chest x-rays in patients with uncomplicated acute bronchitis’. Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

Antibiotics for colds, x-rays for bronchitis, internal exams with pap tests – the latest list of tests to question

Harm doesn’t just come in the form of side-effects or further testing. The “cons” of any treatment also include the costs, which can be financial, emotional, and the costs of the individual’s time.
Biomedical science has made our lives immeasurably better, but it’s time to accept that too much medicine can be as harmful as too little. Kathea Pinto/Flickr

We’re overdosing on medicine – it’s time to embrace life’s uncertainty

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.
Your pain is in fact produced in your head and it will produce it more readily and more intensely if you have what you think is clear evidence that something is wrong. Mislav Marohnić/Flickr

No brain, no pain: it is in the mind, so test results can make it worse

People develop a long-term problem after an episode of back pain if they expect to not recover. Steps by the medical sector to avoid catatrophising back pain by not suggesting scans will help.

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