Too much medicine: the real cost of health care
Insurance companies play the role of middleman between patients and providers in the United States. Read this article that discusses the role that these companies play in boosting health care…
Too much medicine: Patients should challenge doctors over treatment risks and alternatives
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has called on both patients and doctors to adopt the “Bran test”, weighing the benefits and risks of recommended treatment, as well as the…
Too much medicine: overtreatment has several causes
Doctors think that more than 20% of medical treatment in the United States is unnecessary, and there are several possible causes for this.
Too much medicine: Study questions the benefits of abdominal aortic aneurysm screening in men
New research in The Lancet describes how screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm may not reduce deaths from the condition, questioning the need for screening. Photo by Ken Treloar on Unsplash
Robert Whitaker: Randomized controlled trials of psychiatric drugs tell of harm done
Robert Whitaker discusses data from randomized trials and how the number needed to treat is what should inform patients and prescribing protocols.
Lisa Cosgrove: Can you rely on the drugs that your doctor prescribes?
TheCanadian Medical Association Journal(CMAJ) has just published a new guideline for the management of hepatitis C— a disease that is underdiagnosed and undertreated in Canada. But, as Lisa Cosgrove explains, does…
Too Much Medicine: The case for medical nihilism and “gentle medicine”
BMJ's Richard Smith discusses medical nihilism and his belief that most doctors are instinctively nihilists, while most patients are not. Photo by Robin Benad on Unsplash
Too Much Medicine: Doctors Overdiagnose Thyroid Cancer 80 Percent of Time
Watch this episode of Nightly News with Lester Holt which describes a NEJM study about overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer. Photo by João Silas on Unsplash
Too Much Medicine: Chemotherapy found unnecessary for some breast cancers
A precision medicine study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that some women with breast cancer will be able to forego chemotherapy without hurting their chances…
Too Much Medicine: A promising cancer treatment made patients worse, not better
Immunotherapy is still in its early days, and can unleash powerful forces that are not fully understood. Patients and doctors are eager to try the treatments when other options have…