A provocative article from the NY Times discusses the fact that more testing does not always lead to good health outcomes.  Here’s an excerpt:

A cadre of test skeptics at Dartmouth Medical School specialize in critically examining our test-based approach to well adult care. If you are confused about mammography, colonoscopy or the PSA test for prostate cancer, these folks deserve much of the blame: They have repeatedly demonstrated that these tests and many others do not necessarily ameliorate a healthy person’s health, any more than standardized testing in grade school improves a child’s intellect…

… systems that rate doctors by how well their patients’ blood pressure is managed are likely to invite trouble. Doctors rewarded for treating aggressively are likely to keep doing so even when the benefits begin to morph into harm…One study found that nursing home residents taking two or more effective blood pressure drugs did remarkably badly, with death rates more than twice that of their peers. In another, dementia patients taking blood pressure medication with optimal results nonetheless deteriorated mentally considerably faster.

Yet no quality control system that I know of gives a doctor an approving pat on the head for taking a fragile older patient off meds. Not yet, at least. Someday, perhaps, not ordering and not prescribing will mark quality care as surely as ordering and prescribing do today.

Related blog posts:

• The Bigger Picture -Mammography as an Example | gutsandgrowth
• Does negative testing reassure patients? | gutsandgrowth