In his latest piece for The New Yorker, Atul Gwande, MD, addresses the high rate of wasteful medical care.
He cites a study on Medicare patients that found 25-42 percent in one year received at least one of 26 tests and treatments considered useless. In one day in his own practice, seven of eight patients had received unnecessary care.
While clearly a widespread problem, Gwande says physicians are far more concerned with doing too little than doing too much.
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Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.