On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 1:17 PM, Sam<[email protected]> wrote: > Fact No. 4: Americans have better access to preventive cancer > screening than Canadians.
Fact #4 is funny to me because they are basing "better access" to preventative cancer screening on the number of routine mammograms and PSA tests done. The funny part? Medical authorities in the US are trying to reduce the number of routine mammograms and PSA tests done because they are worthless in most cases and counter-productive in many cases. PSA tests done for men with no other reason for it than age produce an astounding number of false positives and create a large number of unnecessary surgeries. Surgeries which, I might add, tend to decrease the quality of life in a significant number of patients. One of the prime movers behind the idea of outcome-based medicine, which tries to emphasize using medical approaches that have been scientifically proven to be worthwhile, is the huge number of mammograms and PSA tests that are not clinically indicated. That's one of the areas that medical reformers are looking to in an effort to decrease the cost of medicine in the US. These things do get damn complicated ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:302739 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
