BMJ special reports on overtreatment

From the 4 October 2012 blog item by Gary Schwitzer at HeatlthNewsReview.org

BMJ editor Fiona Godlee published an editor’s note, “Overtreatment, over here,” kicking off a discussion in her journal.   She begins:

“How much of what we offer to patients is unnecessary? Worse still, how much harm do we do to individuals and society through overtreatment? In the 30 years since Ivan Illich wrote his seminal and, at the time, shocking book Medical Nemesis, the idea that medicine can do clinical and societal harm as well as good has become commonplace. But are we doing enough to bring medicine’s harmful hubris under control?”

US journalist Jeanne Lenzer writes in that same edition, “Unnecessary care: are doctors in denial and is profit driven healthcare to blame?” A BMJ subscription is required for full access.

But you don’t need a subscription to watch a well-done BMJ video featuring Lenzer, colleague Shannon Brownlee, acting director of the New America Health Policy Program and author ofOvertreated: How Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, David Himmelstein, professor at the City University of New York School of Public Health, Vikas Saini, a Harvard cardiologist and president of the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation, and Patty Skolnik of CitizensForPatientSafety.org.

Related Resources

• Choosing Quality Care (Agency for HealthCare Quality and Research)
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  • Explore your treatment options
  • Questions are the answer (communication tips and advice)

 

 

 

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• Doctors speak out about unnecessary care as cost put at $800 billion a year (engineeringevil.com)
• The Agenda: Overtreatment Is Taking a Harmful Toll (well.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Letters: Overtreatment as Myth (2 Letters) (nytimes.com)
• Is Preventative Medicine Really Overtreatment? (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
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