New reports suggest many Americans are being overtreated

Moral of the story: Americans are overtreated and this is both dangerous and costly.  People need to understand that more expensive and more intesive care is NOT better care.

Source: AMA Morning Rounds 3/15/2010

New reports suggest many Americans are being overtreated.

The AP (3/13, Tanner) reported, "A spate of recent reports suggests that many Americans are being overtreated." Research appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine "suggested that too many patients are getting angiograms...who don't really need them; and specialists convened by the National Institutes of Health said doctors are too often demanding repeat cesarean deliveries for pregnant women after a first C-section." Meanwhile, "the American Cancer Society cast more doubt on routine PSA tests for prostate cancer" as "experts dispute how much routine cancer screening saves lives." Still, "Not all doctors and advocacy groups agree with the criticism of screening. Many argue that it can improve survival chances and that saving even a few lives is worth the cost of routinely testing tens of thousands of people."