Overdiagnosed: Making people sick in the pursuit of health
Published February 19, 2014
In this talk, Dr. Welch will 1) define overdiagnosis: the detection of an “abnormality” that would have otherwise never become evident during the individual’s lifetime; 2) describe the proximate mechanisms for overdiagnosis: a) changing rules, b) seeing more, c) looking harder, and d) stumbling onto things; 3) explore the evidence for overdiagnosis and subsequent harm; and 4) consider approaches to mitigate the problem.