| Nearly ten million women every year are tested for cancer of the cervix when they don’t have a cervix. These women get Pap smears after they have had their cervixes completely removed “for reasons other than cancer.”
“Dr. Brenda E. Sirovich, a research associate at the Outcomes Group at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., and the study’s lead author said . . . ‘These women are being screened for cancer in an organ that they don’t have.”’ Gina Kolata, “10 Million Women Who Lack a Cervix Still Get Pap Tests,” New York Times, 23 June 2004. No reputable organization recommends Pap smears under these circumstances. |
June 4, 2010
Ten Million People Are Tested for Cancer “in an Organ That They Don’t Have”
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June 3, 2010
June 2, 2010
Tests Administered; No Doctors Looked at the Results
| “Nearly 4,000 tests for heart disease performed over the last three years at Harlem Hospital Center — more than half of all such tests performed — were never read by doctors charged with making a diagnosis. . . . The tests were stored on a computer and basically forgotten, officials said. . . . ‘The failure to read the echocardiograms in a timely manner is inexcusable and may have placed patients at risk,’” said the president of the corporation that runs the hospital. Anemona Hartocollis, “Heart Tests at Hospital Went Unread,” New York Times, 25 May 2010.
Notice what goes unsaid: does this situation imply that none of the doctors who ordered the tests (who aren’t the ones who analyze them and draw conclusions about whether something is wrong or not) ever checked to find out why they hadn’t gotten a report out of the test results? Four thousand times in three years? |
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June 1, 2010
Tracking Your Own Medical Test Results Is a Good Idea
| When your doctor orders a test, write down the name of the test, what it is for, when and how you will get the test results (e.g., by phone, by mail), and note the date on your calendar. If you don’t get the results by then, call the doctor’s office. |
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May 31, 2010
How Accurate Are Medical Tests?
| Myth or fact: Test results are black or white. If they say you have a disease, you have it; if they say you don’t, you don’t.
Fact: medical tests are not as accurate as you might think. Often when a test indicates that you have a disease, you may need a second test to know if that’s really true. In fact, in the case of mammograms, about ten times as many women are initially told that they have breast cancer as actually do have it. Further, about one woman in a thousand is told that she doesn’t have breast cancer when she does. See Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot’s book The Numbers Game, or pp. 149-150 in Killer Cure. |
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Medical Tests: False Sense of Security?
| You may get a false sense of security from having a medical test. This week’s blog highlights some gaps in the testing process so that you know what pitfalls to watch out for. |
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