Overdiagnosis and overtreatment of infectious diseases at the intersection of individual disease diagnosis, treatment, and public health

Publications Category : Emergency Medicine, Preventive Medicine & Public Health

Author(s): Dan Mayer, Sangil Lee, Malene Plejdrup Hansen, Michael Gottlieb, Michael Brown, Richard Sinert, Joshua Davis

Project Description : Overdiagnosis occurs when people with or without symptoms are diagnosed with a disease that ultimately will not cause them to experience worsening physical symptoms, disability, or early death. Clinicians have been paying more attention to the problem of overdiagnosis as part of the more general problem of “overmedicalization” of society in general. This also includes overtreatment, diagnostic creep, and disease mongering.