I got an invitation in my e-mail a couple of days ago for a dinner presentation to the Central Oregon Medical Society given by H. Gilbert Welch M.D. on the subject of overdiagnosis. I was intrigued. A little less than a year ago Dr. Welch, an internist and professor at Dartmouth Medical School and Archie Bleyer M.D., a former pediatric oncologist and now a research professor at Oregon Health and Sciences University wrote a controversial article presenting compelling evidence that regular mammograms lead to death and disability related to aggressive treatment in many of the patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer but that it did not significantly improve survival. Dr. Welch has been studying overdiagnosis for a couple of decades and has written two books, Should I Be Tested For Cancer-maybe not and here's why and Overdiagnosed: making people sick in the pursuit of health . I have peeked at the second one and found it to be well written, with a non-physician audience int...
The cost of health care in the US is higher than anywhere else in the world, and yet we are not healthier than our peer nations. In fact, in terms of such measures as infant mortality and life span, we don't measure up. Why is this? Many people involved in providing or receiving care have some pretty good ideas about what costs so much, and what we can do to reduce costs and improve quality. Sharing these stories is an important step in creating affordable universal health care.