Too much medicine
The BMJ’s Too Much Medicine initiative aims to highlight the threat to human health posed by overdiagnosis and the waste of resources on unnecessary care. We are part of a movement of doctors, researchers, patients, and policymakers who want to describe, raise awareness of, and find solutions to the problem of too much medicine.
Causes of too much medicine include expanded disease definitions, uncritical adoption of population screening, disease mongering and medicalisation, commercial vested interest, strongly held clinical beliefs, increased patient expectations, litigation, and fear of uncertainty and new technology. Winding back the harms of too much medicine invites clinicians to focus on those who are sick, and only intervene with those who are well when there is a strong case to do so.
How to decide how much is too much?
How to spot too much medicine
Why is it difficult?
Projects at The BMJ
Overdiagnosis series
The BMJ publishes a popular series highlighting medical conditions which may be overdiagnosed.
COPD • Bone fragility • Aortic aneurysm • Mammography • Mild hypertension • Pre-diabetes • Gestational diabetes • Low mood • ADHD • Predementia • Thyroid cancer • Chronic kidney disease • Pulmonary embolism • PCOS
Theme issues
2002 - Too much medicine
Partnering
The BMJ is the media partner for the international scientific conference, Preventing Overdiagnosis. The last conference took place on 20-22 August 2018 in Copenhagen.
Listen to the podcast round up
Listen to the podcast round up
In July 2016 the journal joined forces with the overdiagnosis standing group of the UK’s Royal College of General Practitioners, whose campaign Better medicine: shared decisions, best evidence is also hosted on bmj.com.
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