Nearly one-half of primary care physicians say their patients receive too much medical care. Only 6% say they are receiving too little. This is according to a random sampling of 627 practicing physicians published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Doctors themselves admit that there's way too much testing and overly aggressive screening. As a result, otherwise healthy individuals become "patients," "suffering" from conditions that would never have caused a problem in the first place -- a slightly increased cholesterol, a mildly elevated blood pressure, or a slowly developing prostate cancer. Once a diagnosis has been made, doctors are pretty much obligated to "do something" about it.
Dr. Ken's Corner: Are Americans Getting Too Much Medical Care?
Topics: Archives of Internal Medicine, Brenda Sirovich, Dr. Ken's Corner, Dr. Ken Teufel, overdiagnosis, patient care, too much medical care, unnecessary care