A complex web of factors has created the phenomenon of overdiagnosis: the popular media promotes fear of disease and perpetuates the myth that early, aggressive treatment is always best; in an attempt to avoid lawsuits, doctors have begun to leave no test undone, no abnormality overlooked; and profits are being made from screenings, medical procedures, and pharmaceuticals. Revealing the social, medical, and economic ramifications of a health-care system that overdiagnoses and overtreats patients, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch makes a reasoned call for change that would save us pain, worry, and money.
Overdiagnosed
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
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
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
“Very insightful and engaging.”—Dennis Rosen, The Boston Globe
“One of the most important books about health care in the last several years.”—Cato Institute
"One of the big strengths of this relatively small book is that if you are inclined to ponder medicine's larger questions, you get to tour them all. What is health, really?... In the finite endeavor that is life, when is it permissible to stop preventing things? And if the big questions just make you itchy, you can concentrate on the numbers instead: The authors explain most of the important statistical concepts behind evidence-based medicine in about as friendly a way as you are likely to find."—Abigail Zuger, MD, The New York Times
"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 medicine and microbiology/immunology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of Worried Sick and The Last Well Person
“We’ve all been made to believe that it is always in people’s best interest to try to detect health problems as early as possible. Dr. Welch explains, with gripping examples and ample evidence, how those who have been overdiagnosed cannot benefit from treatment; they can only be harmed. I hope this book will trigger a paradigm shift in the medical establishment’s thinking.” —Sidney Wolfe, MD, author of Worst Pills, Best Pills and editor of WorstPills.org
“One of the most important books about health care in the last several years.”—Cato Institute
"One of the big strengths of this relatively small book is that if you are inclined to ponder medicine's larger questions, you get to tour them all. What is health, really?... In the finite endeavor that is life, when is it permissible to stop preventing things? And if the big questions just make you itchy, you can concentrate on the numbers instead: The authors explain most of the important statistical concepts behind evidence-based medicine in about as friendly a way as you are likely to find."—Abigail Zuger, MD, The New York Times
"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 medicine and microbiology/immunology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of Worried Sick and The Last Well Person
“We’ve all been made to believe that it is always in people’s best interest to try to detect health problems as early as possible. Dr. Welch explains, with gripping examples and ample evidence, how those who have been overdiagnosed cannot benefit from treatment; they can only be harmed. I hope this book will trigger a paradigm shift in the medical establishment’s thinking.” —Sidney Wolfe, MD, author of Worst Pills, Best Pills and editor of WorstPills.org
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More About the Author
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch is a nationally recognized expert 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 the coauthors of Overdiagnosed, 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.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
124 of 126 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
51 of 52 people found the following review helpful
By A. Langston
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
46 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eyeopener on medical treatment costs
Gives great insider info and insight into rising medical costs. Practical advice on how to avoid useless and expensive diagnostic tests.
Published 13 days ago by Dale L. Schultz
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very important book
I think everyone would benefit immensely from reading this book. It gives very important information on the limits of what modern medicine can actually do in the area of... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jane Russell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
This is a very interesting book. Both well researched and well written.
It should be required reading for all Americans.
It should be required reading for all Americans.
Published 1 month ago by Barbara Lowe
5.0 out of 5 stars
Required reading for every physician and anyone considering health...
Clear and well-written. Dr. Welch makes a compelling argument that we are over-screening and in the process turning healthy individuals into patients. Read more
Published 1 month ago by SDC
5.0 out of 5 stars
Screening versus Diagnosing
This book really opened my eyes to the level to which the medical community Screens for diseases (that means there is no symptom present) in hopes of early detection. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Elaine
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone Should Read this Book - Be Informed
Knowledge is power and the over-diagnosis of disease is devastating, life altering and potentially deadly. Read more
Published 2 months ago by gaeapowell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book...easy to understand
Ordered this book because I had been diagnosed with borderline high blood pressure. Was put on medicine that caused me more problems than I could have imagined. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Linda H. Cerullo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth reading
Most of the public believes the tests we physicians do to find cancers early is almost always the right idea. It isn't in so many cases. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jeffrey Schultz
4.0 out of 5 stars
We are healthier than we think
A fascinating review of why we may not be as sick as our doctors may say we are and whhy we should pay attention.
Published 3 months ago by Duncan de vet
5.0 out of 5 stars
Patients be forewarned!
Dr. Welch and his colleagues have done a marvelous job telling the truth to the patients, so as to empower them to help the doctor to use common sense when evaluating them. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Anthony Cabot MD
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