I attended, and led a seminar at, the third annual Preventing Overdiagnosis conference in Washington, DC this week. My talk was on “The role of the media in preventing or promoting overdiagnosis.” My slides are now posted on SlideShare.
Role of the media in preventing or promoting overdiagnosis from Gary Schwitzer
HealthNewsReview.org contributors Alan Cassels, Dr. Susan Molchan and Dr. James Rickert were speakers or participants in the conference.
In coming weeks, we will publish audio podcast interviews with interesting people with different perspectives from the conference:
The conference website will soon provide videos of keynote presentations and other video interviews with speakers and attendees. Check back to that website if you’re interested in learning more.
Meantime, see Bernadette Keefe’s Storify account of the conference.
Addendum on September 8: Allen Frances, MD, wrote on a Huffington Post blog, “My Summary of a Great Conference: ‘Preventing Overdiagnosis’ 2015.”
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Come on, NY Times; you must do better than this. Important research doesn’t need hype and the “breaking news” BS doesn’t help readers or patients. https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2022/03/nyt-proclaims-breaking-news/
Our editorial team was blessed to have Sharon as a contributor during our best years. As this obit states, she was “kind, patient, wise, thoughtful and generous.” Thank you, Sharon; now rest in peace. https://journalism.wisc.edu/news/in-memoriam-sharon-dunwoody-1947-2022/
We’ve written about the hype of liquid biopsies for years (see link in comment below). And now this…. https://www.statnews.com/2022/01/12/medicare-shouldnt-cover-liquid-biopsies-early-cancer-detection/
Comments (5)
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Al Lewis
September 4, 2015 at 7:13 pmI’m totally supportive of your efforts but you are giving workplace wellness programs a free ride. My website http://www.theysaidwhat.net has example after example of wellness vendors screening the stuffing out of employees, who face fines if they don’t capitulate. Then the vendors brag about all the sick people they find. We even have a term for that: Hyperdiagnosis
Gary Schwitzer
September 4, 2015 at 8:56 pmAl,
My talk was – as labeled – about “The role of the media in preventing or promoting over diagnosis.”
So I’m not giving anyone in workplace wellness “a free ride.” That’s just not what my talk was about.
Gary Schwitzer
Imran Ali MD
September 7, 2015 at 1:24 amAmazing, So proud that you are bringing this to light. I am trying my very best to take all of this into account as I begin my journey to becoming a medical journalist
Imran Ali MD
September 7, 2015 at 1:26 amI look forward to seeing you at the ACC conference this December and will encourage my friends at ABC News and CNN to come
James Rickert, MD
September 7, 2015 at 10:59 amThis presentation was among the most engaging at the Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference. Without understanding the role that the media plays in driving inappropriate medical care, we won’t be able to solve the problem.
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