Overdiagnosis or overtreatment? Move to lung cancer screening fuels debate

A report from HLM on Siemens-sponsored, Atlantic-hosted event on "The Diagnostic Debate." Gregory Sorensen, the CEO of Siemens Healthcare North America opened the session by challenging the notion that screening drives overdiagnosis. "We're not over diagnosing," he said. "We're over treating." Sorensen used as an example, mammography. When doctors find a "low-grade" tumor like DCIS …

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Supported by evidence? Mobile health screening gets scrutinized

My latest for HealthLeaders Media looks at Public Citizen charges that a health screening program overstates the promise of its services. Public Citizen takes issue with company claims that cardiac screening saves lives. After issuing am initial statement criticizing Public Citizen as proponent of "government-run health care", HealthFair now says it wants to work with …

Asking advertisers, journalists and politicians to back up claims #evidence #askforevidence

A class at Emerson is working to bring the UK's "Ask for Evidence" program to the US. The program was highlighted last night at Cambridge Science Festival. (TR was on one of the panels) The premise behind this project is simple: if politicians, companies, or commentators want us to vote for them, buy their products, …

BHN Reports: Gawande on reform — “All health care is local.”

The notion that “all health care is local” may sound odd coming from someone who has been deeply involved in health reform at the national level. But Boston surgeon and New Yorker writer Atul Gawande made the case for locally driven reform this morning at a health care quality colloquium at Harvard.  Communities, he said, need to …

JAMA and Dartmouth on Mammograms <50

Gooz News summarizes an article on the USPSTF recommendation on mammography from the evidence-based medicine group at Dartmouth.  It is part of a group of  commentaries on the topic in the Journal of the American Medical Association -- you need subscription or access via a library. Without screening, 3.5 of 1000 women in their 40s …

Screening for Cancer Questioned

BHN thinks this it is huge that the American Cancer Society finally admitted that cancer screening sometimes leads to overdiagnosis. Or did they? This blog item from the Associations of Health Care Journalists notes that ACS backpedaled a day after the NYTimes reported on the society's change of heart. Check out their links too.   (Times writer Gina) Kolata’s story …

Health reform, wired and unwired

There was a State House hearing scheduled today on bill to establish  a single payer health care system in the state. BHN missed it and can't find any reports. We'll keep looking. Here's the background from Mass Care. We are going to try to hit this wired health care meeting,  which takes place tomorrow and Friday …

Caution or stubbornness? Boston docs shun new heart procedure

Boston-area docs are known for their reluctance to adopt new procedures. The Washington Post reports that holds true for a new approach to angioplasty. Instead of steering the catheter into the coronary arteries through the groin, some docs go through the wrist. Questions about the best method of performing cardiac catheterizations, one of the most …

Wasted meds, inappropriate ‘scripts help fuel health costs

This from a coalitions of drug companies, lawyers, academics and insurers.  See board of directors. In 2007, the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) released a report, "Waste and Inefficiency in the Health Care System," which estimated that a full third of the $2.4 trillion spent on health care in the U.S. could be eliminated without …

NY Times Book Review:The Heart of Power

You read about it here first. Maybe. From BHN 7/15. The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office  starts with FDR and looks at how each recent president approached health reform. Lyndon Johnson was “the most effective health care president in American history,” according to the authors, Brown historian James A. Morone and Obama …