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Overdiagnosed

Audiobook
Nonfiction: Medical / Diagnosis / Health
Unabridged   9.75 hour(s)
Publication date: 09/11/2012

A SoundCommentary Best Audiobooks of the Year Selection

Overdiagnosed

Making People Sick in Pursuit of Health

Available from major retailers or BUY FROM AMAZON
Audio CD ISBN:9781611749632
Digital Download ISBN:9781611749649

Summary

Exposing the overdiagnosis of everything from high blood pressure to prostate and breast cancers , Dr. Welch traces the social, ethical, and economic ramifications of some of the worst excesses of American medical practice.

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Product Description

Going against the conventional wisdom reinforced by the medical establishment and Big Pharma that more screening is the best preventative medicine, Dr. Gilbert Welch builds a compelling counterargument that what we need are fewer, not more, diagnoses. Documenting the excesses of American medical practice that labels far too many of us as sick, Welch examines the social, ethical, and economic ramifications of a health-care system that unnecessarily diagnoses and treats patients, most of whom will not benefit from treatment, might be harmed by it, and would arguably be better off without screening.

Drawing on twenty-five years of medical practice and research, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch and his colleagues, Dr. Lisa M. Schwartz and Dr. Steven Woloshin, have studied the effects of screenings and presumed preventative measures for disease and “pre-disease.” Examining the social, medical, and economic ramifications of a health care system that unnecessarily diagnoses and treats patients, Welch makes a reasoned call for change that would save us from countless unneeded surgeries, debilitating anxiety, and exorbitant costs.

Reviews/Praise

“Narrator Sean Runnette’s gentle voice and connection with this consumer-awareness health topic make this audiobook easy to absorb.”
      —AudioFile

“Runnette does a good job conveying the information. He sounds reasonable and thoughtful. . . . The clearly stated, rational arguments will certainly coax listeners to discuss these issues with their doctors.”
      —Booklist

“An excellent reading of a excellent treatment of a controversial subject.”
      —Sound Commentary

“This accessible and important book will help the reader understand the limitations of modern medicine and the perils inherent in an overzealous pursuit of a disease-free existence at any cost. It is also especially timely in raising one of the many issues surrounding the health-care debate.”
      —Dennis Rosen, The Boston Globe

“One of the big strengths of this relatively small book is that if you are inclined to ponder medicine's larger questions, you get to tour them all. What is health, really? In the finite endeavor that is life, when is it permissible to stop preventing things? And if the big questions just make you itchy, you can concentrate on the numbers instead: The authors explain most of the important statistical concepts behind evidence-based medicine in about as friendly a way as you are likely to find.”
      —Abigail Zuger, M.D., The New York Times

Author Bio

H. GILBERT WELCH, M.D. is a professor at Dartmouth Medical School and a nationally recognized expert on the effects of medical testing. He has been published in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on Today. In 2009, he received the Under Secretary’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research.