Ebook Download Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin
So, when you need fast that book Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin, it does not should await some days to get the book Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin You could straight get guide to save in your tool. Also you love reading this Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin all over you have time, you can appreciate it to review Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin It is certainly practical for you who wish to get the much more precious time for reading. Why do not you invest five mins and invest little cash to obtain guide Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin right here? Never ever let the extra point goes away from you.
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin
Ebook Download Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin
New upgraded! The Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin from the very best writer and author is currently readily available right here. This is guide Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin that will make your day checking out ends up being completed. When you are trying to find the published book Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin of this title in the book shop, you may not locate it. The troubles can be the minimal versions Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin that are given up guide shop.
When obtaining this publication Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin as reference to check out, you could get not only inspiration but also brand-new understanding as well as sessions. It has greater than typical perks to take. What type of book that you read it will serve for you? So, why should get this book qualified Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin in this write-up? As in web link download, you can get guide Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin by on the internet.
When obtaining guide Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin by on-line, you can read them wherever you are. Yeah, even you are in the train, bus, waiting list, or various other places, on the internet book Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin could be your good close friend. Whenever is a great time to check out. It will certainly improve your knowledge, enjoyable, enjoyable, session, and also encounter without spending more cash. This is why online publication Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin comes to be most really wanted.
Be the first that are reviewing this Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin Based upon some reasons, reading this publication will certainly supply even more advantages. Also you should read it pointer by action, page by web page, you can complete it whenever and wherever you have time. Once again, this online publication Overdiagnosed, By H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin will certainly provide you easy of reading time as well as task. It also supplies the experience that is budget friendly to get to and acquire significantly for much better life.
From a nationally recognized expert, an expos� of the worst excesses of our zeal for medical testing
Going against the conventional wisdom reinforced by the medical establishment and Big Pharma that more screening is the best preventative medicine, Dr. Gilbert Welch builds a compelling counterargument that what we need are fewer, not more, diagnoses. Documenting the excesses of American medical practice that labels far too many of us as sick, Welch examines the social, ethical, and economic ramifications of a health-care system that unnecessarily diagnoses and treats patients, most of whom will not benefit from treatment, might be harmed by it, and would arguably be better off without screening.
Drawing on twenty-five years of medical practice and research on the effects of medical testing, Welch explains in a straightforward, jargon-free style how the cutoffs for treating a person with "abnormal" test results have been drastically lowered just when technological advances have allowed us to see more and more "abnormalities," many of which will pose fewer health complications than the procedures that ostensibly cure them. Citing studies that show that 10 percent of two thousand healthy people were found to have had silent strokes, and that well over half of men over age sixty have traces of prostate cancer but no impairment, Welch reveals overdiagnosis to be rampant for numerous conditions and diseases, including diabetes, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, gallstones, abdominal aortic aneuryisms, blood clots, as well as skin, prostate, breast, and lung cancers.
With genetic and prenatal screening now common, patients are being diagnosed not with disease but with "pre-disease" or for being at "high risk" of developing disease. Revealing the economic and medical forces that contribute to overdiagnosis, Welch makes a reasoned call for change that would save us from countless unneeded surgeries, excessive worry, and exorbitant costs, all while maintaining a balanced view of both the potential benefits and harms of diagnosis. Drawing on data, clinical studies, and anecdotes from his own practice, Welch builds a solid, accessible case against the belief that more screening always improves health care.
- Sales Rank: #183119 in eBooks
- Published on: 2011-01-18
- Released on: 2011-01-18
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Health policy expert Welch’s assertions about the benefits of some of modern medicine’s most popular diagnostic screening tools are unlikely to ingratiate him with many people. He claims that overdiagnosis “is the biggest problem posed by modern medicine,” and backs that assertion up with a barrage of facts, charts, and graphs. This is information, he says, that is downplayed or simply ignored by individuals and groups promoting the notion that earlier diagnosis—whether for prostate cancer or diabetes—translates to better health. Indeed, Welch says, just the converse is more often true. In an overwhelming number of circumstances, early diagnosis turns healthy, asymptomatic people into patients who require a variety of medical interventions with no benefit, even exposing them to unnecessary harm. Worse, overdiagnosis can render perfectly healthy people uninsurable. Furthermore, instead of lowering health-care costs, all those scans, screenings, and tests actually raise costs by overtreating people who will never benefit from said treatment. His point is that both physicians and patients need to be skeptical and understand all the data (pro and con) surrounding prescreening for possible illness. Welch speaks his truth with a frankness and clarity scant found in today’s hysteria over medical prescreening. --Donna Chavez
Review
"Overdiagnosed —albeit controversial—is a provocative, intellectually stimulating work. As such, all who are involved in health care, including physicians, allied health professionals, and all current or future patients, will be well served by reading and giving serious thought to the material presented."─ JAMA
“Everyone should read this book before going to the doctor! Welcome evidence that more testing and treatment is not always better.”─ Susan Love, MD, author of Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book
�
“This book makes a compelling case against excessive medical screening and diagnostic testing in asymptomatic people. Its important but underappreciated message is delivered in a highly readable style. I recommend it enthusiastically for everyone.”─ Arnold S. Relman, MD, editor-in-chief emeritus, New England Journal of Medicine, and author of A Second Opinion: Rescuing America’s Health Care
�
“This stunning book will help you and your loved ones avoid the hazards of too much health care. Within just a few pages, you’ll be recommending it to family and friends, and, hopefully, your local physician. If every medical student read Overdiagnosed, there is little doubt that a safer, healthier world would be the result.”─ Ray Moynihan, conjoint lecturer at the University of Newcastle, visiting editor of the British Medical Journal, and author of Selling Sickness
�
“An ‘overdiagnosis’ is a label no one wants: it is worrisome, it augurs ‘overtreatment,’ and it has no potential for personal benefit. This elegant book forewarns you. It also teaches you how and why to ask, ‘Do I really need to know this?’ before agreeing to any diagnostic or screening test. A close read is good for your health.”─ Nortin M. Hadler, MD, professor of medi...
About the Author
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch is a renowned authority on the effects of medical screening who has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, NPR, and in the New York Times and Washington Post. He and his coauthors, Dr. Lisa M. Schwartz and Dr. Steven Woloshin, nationally recognized experts in risk communication, are professors at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.�
Most helpful customer reviews
193 of 195 people found the following review helpful.
Good Insights -
By Loyd Eskildson
Conventional wisdom is that more diagnosis, especially early diagnosis, means better medical care. Reality, says Dr. Gilbert Welch - author of "Overdiagnosed," is that more diagnosis leads to excessive treatment that can harm patients, make healthy people feel less so and even cause depression, and add to escalating health care costs. In fact, physician Welch believes overdiagnosis is the biggest problem for modern medicine, and relevant to almost all medical conditions. Welch devotes most of his book to documenting his concerns via examples of early diagnosis efforts for hypertension, prostate cancer, breast cancer, etc. that caused patient problems.
Welch provides readers with four important and generalizable points. The first is that, while target guidelines are set by panels of experts, those experts bring with them biases and sometimes even monetary incentives from drug-makers, etc. Over the past decades many target levels have been changed (eg. blood pressure, cholesterol levels, PSA levels), dramatically increasing the number classified as having a particular condition. (Welch adds that prostate cancer can be found at any PSA level - about 8% for those with a PSA level of 1 or less, over 30% for those with a level exceeding 4; most are benign.)
The second is that treating those with eg. severe hypertension benefits those patients much more than treating those with very mild hypertension or 'prehypertension;' the result is treating those with lesser 'symptoms' can easily cause new problems that outweigh the value of the hypertension treatment.
The third is that Welch believes it is usually more important to treat those with disease symptoms (eg. pain) than those without. For example, almost 70% of men 60-69 have prostate cancer, as well as about 10% of those aged 20-29 - a large number are better left untreated because their particular cases involve a very slow-growing form and the side-effects of treatment outweigh the benefits. Welch also reports that a study of over 1,000 symptom-free people that underwent total-body CT screens found 86% had at least one detected abnormality, with an average of 2.8. Many of these abnormalities later disappear (some cancers disappear), while others grow very slowly, if at all. Providing unneeded treatment subjects patients to unneeded pain, risk of adverse outcomes (including death), and unneeded expense.
Examples: Welch cites the example of a mildly hypertensive older man that he treated; unfortunately, while shoveling snow the individual passed out from a combination of sweating and the diuretic prescribed for his high blood pressure. Welch discontinued the man's medication. Similarly, Dr. Welch treated a patient with mild diabetes - the result was she fainted from low blood sugar (the level fluctuates around a mean) while driving just after a meal and was severely injured in an accident. Dr. Welch discontinued her medication as well.
Meanwhile, at the same time that a number of target guidelines have been tightened, the availability and capability of scanning and other detection devices to find abnormalities has also increased. For example, since the early 1990s, Welch tells us that the Medicare per capita use of head scans has doubled, the rates of abdominal scans have tripled, chest scans quintupled, brain MRI rates quadrupled, etc. New biopsy methods for detecting prostate cancer (eg. sampling from 18 points rather than 12 or fewer) also increase the number of benign 'false-positive' diagnoses, probably much more so than true positives.
Why is there so much testing? Dr. Welch attributes it to well-meaning disease advocacy groups, testimonials (eg. ex-Senator Dole regarding his prostate cancer), quality-improvement efforts that include testing as one of their criteria, malpractice awards, hospital/specialist/drug company marketing (beware of these, says Welch), and honest disagreement over its value. He's also concerned about what lower-cost DNA testing will add to the overdiagnosis problem, contending that everyone's genes will reveal heightened susceptibility to some ailments and diseases, with little that can be done despite the knowledge. The author would probably also be concerned about new Medicare requirements to provide a battery of up to 45 medical tests ("The Wall Street Journal" - 1/18/2011). That article also reports that a "New England Journal of Medicine" review of hundreds of preventive-care studies showed that fewer than 20% saved money.
Bottom-Line: Dr. Welch raises an important topic for improving health care while reducing costs. His main recommendation, more data from clinical trials showing the outcomes of choosing one diagnosing standard/method over another, is important and appropriate.
78 of 80 people found the following review helpful.
Very Important Read
By Lily G
Dr. Welch's book is important and a good read. He explains concepts clearly and thoroughly, and the topic is timely and important for Americans, both from a public health (and personal misery) standpoint, as well as a skyrocketing national medical costs standpoint.
I have worked in the medical field off and on over the years, and even worked on a prostate cancer project, so I already knew a fair bit about the prostate cancer screening/treatment debate. I learned even more from Dr. Welch.
One question that I have had for years, and that has never been answered to my satisfaction is:
If a person is being treated for cancer, and they die from the treatment (on the operating table, from the drugs/radiation, etc.), do they count in the "deaths from cancer" statistic? I personally have known many more people who died from the treatment itself than who died from the cancer, and yet that particular topic does not get addressed. Are death rates from prostate cancer (for instance) holding steady because the treatments don't work, or because men are dying from unnecessary treatment and that offsets the successful treatments? (I did notice that the death rates for prostate cancer went *up* with an increase in detection in the figure on page 56.)
Statistics are smoky, and it really helps to know more about the study design. Dr. Welch does a very good job of describing the various studies, and their flaws and strengths. I'm sure it is a huge hot potato to discuss death rates from treatment, but I would be very interested in seeing those numbers broken out.
78 of 81 people found the following review helpful.
Buy one copy for yourself and another for your doctor
By Nancy Robertson
I read Overdiagnosed this morning, and I strongly urge you to read it, too. If you've ever wondered why our country's healthcare costs are skyrocketing even though our health outcomes lag behind the rest of the industrialized world, this book has the answers. We are overtested, overdiagnosed and overtreated. But sadly and paradoxically, this intensive use of "preventive" medicine has not improved our physical health or sense of well being -- it has diminished it.
Dr. Welch builds a strong case that Americans are overdiagnosed in a clear, concise and compelling way. He provides anecdotal accounts of people who were seriously harmed by the overzealous use of modern, high tech testing. And he backs these stories up with findings from landmark medical research studies. As we move from chapter to chapter and disease to disease, we see the same patterns emerge: thresholds for "illness" are lowered and suddenly tens of millions of people are diagnosed and treated for mild or nonexistent "diseases" that never would have harmed them.
Dr. Welch identifies the key players who brought American medicine to this sorry state -- big pharma and medical products manufacturers hungry to increase profits, doctors who order unnecessary tests to avoid malpractice lawsuits, and overzealous patient advocacy groups who press for action in the absence of any scientific evidence of improved outcomes.
Dr. Welch explains key concepts like "lag time bias" and "overtreatment bias" that enable you to see why the benefits of aggressive preventive medicine are far less than you have been led to believe. Once you understand terms like these, you will never again be swayed by misleading advertising or public health campaigns. Instead, you will be able to make decisions about your own health care in a rational, intelligent, and informed way.
In short, if you read one health related book this year, it should be "Overdiagnosed." Buy one copy for yourself and another for your doctor.
See all 221 customer reviews...
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin PDF
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin EPub
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin Doc
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin iBooks
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin rtf
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin Mobipocket
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin Kindle
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin PDF
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin PDF
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin PDF
Overdiagnosed, by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartzl, Steve Woloshin PDF
