Since the 1980s, PSA tests have been used for the diagnosis and follow-up of prostate cancer. However, its use as a screening test for prostate cancer remains controversial.
Back pain affects one-quarter of Australians.
from shutterstock.com
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.
Dr. Karen Lindfors, a professor of radiology and chief of breast imaging at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, examines the mammogram of a patient.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
October is breast cancer awareness month. Women should know there is no reliable evidence that routine mammograms reduce death from breast cancer, and there’s good evidence that they cause harm.
Some conditions should be classified as normal in some people and don’t need treatment.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
Two major studies cast doubt on the value of screening for prostate cancer, yet it continues regardless.
Medical panels are constantly lowering thresholds across many diseases, which results in more and more healthy people being diagnosed as sick.
José Martín/Unsplash
More of us are labelled as sick with the constantly changing diagnostic cut-offs for diseases. Now an international expert panel has drafted a list of things to consider before setting new thresholds.
Doctors know most scans for low back pain are useless, but they have trouble convincing patients.
from www.shutterstock.com
Reducing health-care waste relating to unnecessary tests has been a major priority for researchers, governments and health services for decades. But how do we change the behaviour of doctors?
Arguments that immature children are incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD are simplistic.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
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.
A snapshot of 2015: health reviews, Health Check series, thalidomide series, Medicare versus private health insurance.
AAP; Shutterstock; Julian Smith/; Dave Hunt/AAP
This was the year of the health review – mental health care, Medicare, private health insurance, the pharmacy industry … and the list goes on. But how much movement was there on policy?
GPs have increased their test ordering by more than 50%. Imaging for back pain is one of the key culprits.
lauren rushing/Flickr
The evidence suggests too much medicine is doing us harm, particularly when treating knee pain, back pain, chest pain and screening for prostate cancer.
Ineffective care exposes patients to complications and side-effects and waste precious health care resources.
Jim Young/Reuters
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.
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
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.
Over the past decade, the use of pathology laboratory tests is thought to have increased every year.
Abd allah Foteih/Flickr
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.
Half a million fewer statins were dispensed to patients in the eight months following the Catalyst broadcasts.
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In October 2013, Catalyst broadcast a segment highly critical of statins, a class of drug used for lowering cholesterol.
An independent UK inquiry estimated that perhaps one in five of the cancers detected via breast cancer screening are overdiagnosed.
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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.