New diagnostic tests: more harm than good, BMJ 2017;358:j3314,
06 January 2016.Defenders against overdiagnosis, BMJ 2017;358:j3487, 20 July 2017.
Although new diagnostics may advance the time of diagnoses in selected patients, they will increase the frequency of false alarms, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment in others.
Bjorn Hofmann, professor of medical ethics at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, explains how to minimise harm. Press Play > to listen to the recording.
Key messages
- Innovative technologies and ample venture capital are combining to produce new disease biomarkers and mobile monitoring devices
- These new diagnostics are technologically advanced but do not automatically provide improvements in clinical care and population health
- They have the potential to help some but also to increase the frequency of false alarms, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment in others
- Excessive testing and false alarms may increase healthcare workload and shift clinicians’ focus towards the healthy
- Misleading feedback at both the population and individual levels tends to favour further market growth
- Clinicians must provide a strong counterbalance: educating patients, respecting baseline risk, thinking downstream, and expecting misleading feedback
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