In the BU Today’s journal article, “Overdiagnosis: Bad for You, Good for Business,” Lisa Chedekel asserts in an informative and medically focused interview with Professor H. Gilbert Welch that overdiagnosis is indeed a problem that is partially caused by the medical businesses who benefit from it. First and foremost, Welch says that overdiagnosis exists because all humans harbor abnormalities that can increasingly be detected by tests and screenings, and doctors tend to treat for all if they cannot tell which is harmful and which is benevolent. Second, one million people have been diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in the twenty years since the introduction of a blood test screening for prostate cancer, even if the cancer was only detected in microscopic amounts that would most likely never cause them harm. Third, diagnosis of diabetics has noticeably increased as they continue to lower the average fasting blood sugar for non-diabetics. Finally, the people who benefit the most from overdiagnosis are all medical businesses—hospitals, pharmacies, and others—who accumulate more money by increasing the number of patients they have, not by the betterment of their services.
Chedekel, Lisa. "Overdiagnosis: Bad for You, Good for Business." BU Today (2011).
BU Today. Boston University, 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 26 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.bu.edu>.
Overdiagnosis is apparent and, most of the time, harmful. It is the result of a broadening list of needless symptoms that classify many people for a disease or disorder. Many people before this would not have qualified for these issues but do now, and thus receive treatment they do not need. This could be indicative of medical businesses trying to gain more money and business from the growing number of patients- in effect they are creating patients, not curing them as they should be. Though there is little proof to show that overdiagnosis is, in fact, a scam, Chedekel and Welch draw attention to the fact that it is a possibility, as much of the time the only people who benefit from it are the ones who rely on it.
Interesting perspective.
ReplyDeleteJasmine, I like where your blog is headed so far. It is an interesting topic and I agree with this point. When I first came to America, I was bewildered by the vast amount of people who had disorders and disabilities such as ADD. It seemed as though nobody had it in Australia, while every second person had it here. Maybe in a future post you could compare and contrast over-diagnosis in other countries to America. Overall, I enjoyed reading your point of view on this topic, as it was well written and used the evidence from the article well.
ReplyDelete-Zoe Quigley
Zoe,good job.
DeleteThis post is relevant because I know many people who say they have ADD or ADHD. While some of them were believable cases, others I had my doubts about. Overdiagnosis is something that I had never been brought to my attention before, but now I can see its apparent effects. This is an issue that can get out of control quite easily and it needs to be addressed. I'd love to see if you could find some info on what other people have done and if there have been any major movements against overdiagnosis.
ReplyDeleteConnor, good suggestions.
Delete