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Treating the masses, overtreating the few
In the US, overly aggressive treatment is estimated to cause 30 000 deaths among Medicare recipients alone each year. Reporter Jeanne Lenzer has investigated the problem for the BMJ, and explains why she thinks profit driven healthcare is to blame.
And, experience of treating rare conditions can take time to build. Rej Bhumbra, a surgical trainee in orthopaedic oncology, explains how his time in India fast tracked his learning.
See also
Could a passage to India be the way to get more surgical experience?
BMJ video: The harms of overtreatment
Unnecessary care: are doctors in denial and is profit driven healthcare to blame?
Audio chapters:
The harms of overtreatment: 0:31
Surgical training in India: 8:28
Latest comments and most commented
Total cost of overdiagnosis is probably 50 times higher than modelled here
Published 21 May 2013
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Re: Are antidepressants overprescribed? No
Published 21 May 2013
UGC India and MCI should lower the beam for a while for teachers in FAMILY MEDICINE, to let it come up as a different entity taught by specialists from FAMILY MEDICINE only
Published 21 May 2013