September 4, 2015
Preventing Overdiagnosis 2015
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:
- Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical and scientific officer, American Cancer Society
- Dr. Laura Esserman, surgeon and breast cancer oncology specialist, UC San Francisco
- Dr. Jean Silver-Isenstadt, executive director, the National Physicians Alliance
- Dr. John Yudkin, emeritis professor of medicine, University College, London
- Dr. Saurabh Jha, Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
- Dr. Teppo Järvinen, orthopedic surgeon, Finland
- Dr. James Rickert, president, Society for Patient Centered Orthopedics
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.”
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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