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  Medical professional groups and cancer advocacy groups need to refocus on educating rather than persuading about cancer testing. The harms of screening have been largely dismissed. It is easy to sell screening, just magnify the benefit, minimize the cost, and hide the data about their value. These tests are big business and there are conflicts...

Many breast cancers resolve on their own. Autopsy studies show that about 30% of women in their 50s have occult breast cancers that apparently come and go. It makes one wonder if we are massively overdiagnosing cancers and overtreating them as well. The trick is to know which cancers are dangerous and in need of treatment. Studies on mammograms over time have...

  You can't really blame MDs for practicing defensively when they are trying to do the best job they possibly can for their patients and they don't want to be involved in a malpractice case if they make an error. In a study of 1200 orthopedic surgeons 96% admitted practicing defensively. This came to an estimated $2 billion cost annually. Many...

  According to an article in the NY Times in January of 2013, it appears that Johnson and Johnson, the manufacturer of the DePuy metal on metal hip resurfacing prosthesis, knowingly and willingly sold this product even though they had full knowledge that it was defective and would cause widespread disability, suffering, and even deaths. More that 10,000...

According to a November 2014 article published in Social Science and Medicine, the diagnosis of ADHD and ADD are spreading like an infectious disease. Until the past decade, the US consumed 90% of the drugs used to treat these disorders, and the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Brazil the rest. Even though far more of these drugs are now used in the US, we...

  The relationship between high dose radiation is well known, but much is known about diagnostic medical radiation in causing cancer. We now know that medical radiation plays a role in causing cancer, especially in children. We tend to over-depend on technology to solve clinical questions because it is easy and useful, and to protect liability of medical...