Almost every statistic you read today slams the US health care system. Not enough press is given to what we do well.
The Lancet ranks the US #1 in cancer survival rates in both men and women.
Time to give some credit when it’s due. (via Catron)
Related posts:
- Cancer death rates
- Declining breast cancer rates
- "The distinction between survival and mortality cuts to the heart of the screening debate"
- When are birthrates the highest?
- Infant mortality: Can it be used to compare health systems?
- The American Cancer Society and the uninsured
- "The great majority of women in the United States should not be getting MRI scans for breast cancer screening"
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 2 comments }
Note that the study is based on length of survival AFTER DIAGNOSIS. The study did not look at the relative effectiveness of treatment in different countries.
Without knowing the effect of lead-time bias on the results, it’s impossible to say whether the US system is performing better or worse… or whether the final standings may simply reflect diagnosing cancers earlier… including some cancers that would never have become life-threatening.
And I’d question your assertion that most news stories about medicine and health care are negative. Content analyses of news reports actually find that most stories are positive… celebrating findings of medical research. For example, take a look at the work by James Pribble, MD et al. at the Univ. of Michigan.
…of those people diagnosed. The study didn’t evaluate how good the US is at catching cancer. Countries that are better at diagnosing cancer in the general population might suffer in the stats because of this.
Comments on this entry are closed.