Dr. Stephen Smith, professor emeritus of family
medicine at Brown University School of Medicine, tells
his physician not to order a PSA blood test for prostate
cancer or an annual electrocardiogram to screen for
[5] heart irregularities, since neither test has been shown to
save lives. Rather, both tests frequently find innocuous
quirks that can lead to a risky odyssey of tests and
procedures. Dr. Rita Redberg, professor of medicine at
the University of California says that mammograms
[10] detect too many false positives ( suspicious spots that
turn out, upon biopsy, to be nothing) and tumors that
might regress on their own, and there is little if any
evidence that they save lives. “There are many areas of
medicine where not testing, not imaging, and not
[15] treating actually result ∈ better outcomes,” Redberg
says. In other words, “less is more”.
That less care can lead to better health and,
conversely, that more health care can harm health, runs
counter to most patients’ conviction that screenings and
[20] treatments are inherently beneficial. Most of us
wouldn´t think twice if our doctor offered us a test that
has the power to expose a lurking tumor, or a clogged
artery, or a heart arrhythmia. Better to know – and get
treated‐ than to take risks, the reasoning goes.
[25] However ∈ an Archives paper published this
month, a panel of physicians announced its first list of
tests and treatments that should be dropped for certain
patients and ailments: antibiotics for sinus infections,
imaging for low back pain, osteoporosis screening for
[30] women under 65 and electrocardiograms ∈ low‐risk
patients.
(from No! The one word can save your life, by Sharon Begley, in NEWSWEEK, August 29,2011)
In paragraph 1, Dr. Stephen Smith
