Worth reading the counterpoint to scanning!

When it comes to preventive care, "The more data, the better" doesn't always translate to positive patient outcomes. Doing more tests can actually cause more harm than they help.

https://www.outofpocket.health/p/why-dont-we-screen-healthy-people
#Bio hacking

Why don’t we screen healthy people to catch diseases early? | Out-Of-Pocket

Bio hacking

Worth reading the counterpoint to scanning!  When it comes to preventive care, "The more data, the better" doesn't always translate to positive patient outcomes. Doing more tests can actually cause more harm than they help.  https://www.outofpocket.health/p/why-dont-we-screen-healthy-people #Bio hacking

Interesting.  I, like most people probably assume it's about cost, but it's actually about false positives, the harm in biopsies, and more 🤔

Nate

What a great post & (thankfully) nuanced take.

But my favorite portion by FAR: "Maybe screening the population will create a lot of false positives in the short term, but as a result, we could see increased demand for safer biopsy methods, clinical trials that start at earlier stages in the disease, personalized health baselines for more people that can be used for research down the road, etc.

The Apple Watch is on 100M+ users and now has a single-lead ECG meant to detect heart issues. Understandably, cardiologists are wondering if this is a good thing or going to inundate the health system with people worried about nothing. But what if this results in better systems of triaging patients with at-home testing + telemedicine in order to respond to a massive influx of people wanting answers? What if it better helps us identify rising risk patients with asymptomatic afib who we can manage differently?

Maybe incurring the cost/over testing downsides actually yields more benefits in the form of breakthrough research and better screening in the long run."

What a great post & (thankfully) nuanced take.  But my favorite portion by FAR: "Maybe screening the population will create a lot of false positives in the short term, but as a result, we could see increased demand for safer biopsy methods, clinical trials that start at earlier stages in the disease, personalized health baselines for more people that can be used for research down the road, etc.  The Apple Watch is on 100M+ users and now has a single-lead ECG meant to detect heart issues. Understandably, cardiologists are wondering if this is a good thing or going to inundate the health system with people worried about nothing. But what if this results in better systems of triaging patients with at-home testing + telemedicine in order to respond to a massive influx of people wanting answers? What if it better helps us identify rising risk patients with asymptomatic afib who we can manage differently?  Maybe incurring the cost/over testing downsides actually yields more benefits in the form of breakthrough research and better screening in the long run."

Jerome Cody

This conversation is important because as liquid cancer biopsies roll out, we're going to reach a tipping point in how we think about screening

Cyril

LOL, mine is “Yeah you have cancer, but honestly it’s probably fine don’t stress haha that’ll be $15,000”. 😂

My favorite line:  "“A senior partner once told me ‘no one ever sends you a thank you note for not ordering a CT scan’.” - Dr. Eric Funk".  So true.

D J