The Media Is Overhyping Early Detection Tests And This May Harm The Healthy

[Julieanne]

Mary O'Keefe & Ray Moynihan
April 6 2021

Do you remember hearing about the simple blood test that could tell if you had any of several different cancers? What about the Apple Watch that promised to catch your hidden heart problems before it was too late? Or the artificial intelligence test to diagnose your dementia years before symptoms appear?
These are not tests for sick people. But the trouble is, testing the healthy can too often wrongly classify them as sick.
Today, in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, we’ve published the results of a large global study looking at media coverage of these tests.



Read more: https://theconversation.com/the-medi...0the%20healthy

[Maurya]

Just another method for selling unwanted medical treatments to people who artificially have been made to fear their own bodies. Big bucks to be had for some medical people at the expense of all the rest of us.

[Islander]

And there are hypochondriacs everywhere, believing that they are suffering from some incipient disease. We've probably all known people like that!