Using evidence to combat overdiagnosis and overtreatment: evaluating treatments, tests, and disease definitions in the time of too much

Ray Moynihan; David Henry; Karel G M Moons

doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001655

Using evidence to combat overdiagnosis and overtreatment: evaluating treatments, tests, and disease definitions in the time of too much

PLoS Med. 2014 Jul 1;11(7):e1001655. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001655. eCollection 2014 Jul.

Authors

Ray Moynihan¹, David Henry², Karel G M Moons³

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice, Bond University, Robina, Queensland, Australia.
² University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Ray Moynihan and colleagues outline suggestions for improving the way that medical evidence is produced, analysed, and interpreted to avoid problems of overdiagnosis and overtreatment.

Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Clinical Trials as Topic
Diagnosis*
Evidence-Based Medicine / methods*
Evidence-Based Medicine / standards*
Risk Assessment
Terminology as Topic
Therapeutics*

Grants and funding

There was no funding for this article, though Karel G.M. Moons gratefully acknowledges financial contribution by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (project 9120.8004 and 918.10.615). No funding bodies had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.