Testing What We Think We Know (The New York Times)

Body

[[{“type”:“media”,“view_mode”:“media_large”,“fid”:null,“attributes”:{“class”:“media-image alignright size-full wp-image-1606”,“typeof”:“foaf:Image”,“style”:“”,“width”:“100”,“height”:“100”,“alt”:“New York Times”}}]]In this opinion piece, H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, says it’s time to do more research on what works and what doesn’t in standard medical practice. Citing as examples two routine cancer screenings—mammograms and colonoscopies—Welch says it’s not yet clear how helpful, or harmful, these tests are.

“We don’t need to find more things to spend money on; we need to figure out what’s being done now that is not working,” he writes. “That’s why we have to start directing more money toward evaluating standard practices—all the tests and treatments that doctors are already providing.”

Welch is co-author of Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health.

Read the full op-ed, published 8/20/12 in The New York Times.

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