Preventive Medicine: Are We Taking It Too Far?

Physicians need to be knowledgeable about both the potential benefits and possible harms of early screening and detection. What should we do when a healthy patient comes to our office requesting a full-body CT scan, genetic testing for cancer markers, or other screening measures that may not be suitable for their condition? How can we put health risks into perspective and give our patients basic information about the overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment that may follow screening? For an interesting discussion about these questions and much more, host Dr. Jennifer Shu welcomes Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine and community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, and author of Should I Be Tested for Cancer? Maybe Not, and Here's Why.