Table of Contents...
Introduction: Our Enthusiasm for Diagnosis
Chapter 1) Genesis: People Become Patients with High Blood
Pressure
Chapter 2) We Change the Rules: How Numbers Get Changed to
Give You Diabetes, High Cholesterol, and Osteoporosis
Chapter 3) We Are Able to See More: How Scans Give You
Gallstones, Damaged Knee Cartilage, Bulging Discs, Abdominal Aortic
Aneurysms, and Blood Clots
Chapter 4) We Look Harder for Prostate Cancer: How Screening
Made It Clear That Overdiagnosis Exists in Cancer
Chapter 5) We Look Harder for Other Cancers
Chapter 6) We Look Harder for Breast Cancer
Chapter 7) We Stumble onto Incidentalomas That Might Be
Cancer
Chapter 8) We Look Harder for Everything Else: How Screening
Gives You (and Your Baby) Another Set of Problems
Chapter 9) We Confuse DNA with Disease: How Genetic Testing
Will Give You Almost Anything
Chapter 10) Get the Facts
Chapter 11) Get the System
Chapter 12) Get the Big Picture
Conclusion: Pursuing Health with Less Diagnosis
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch is a renowned authority 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 his coauthors, 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.
“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
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