As a primary care physician, I generally follow the guidelines of the USPSTF, an entity that uses rigorous standards of evidence as the basis for their recommendations.
Sadly, however, major media publications fall short of such standards whenever they delve into “which screening tests should I get”-type of articles.
The latest example is this piece from the Washington Post, discussing recommended tests men should ask for.
Journalism professor Gary Schwitzer takes some of their recommendations to task, including testicular cancer screening, a baseline EKG, and skin cancer screening, all of which fall short of the USPSTF recommending it.
Major media outlets do a disservice by not adhering to evidence-based guidelines, which only serves to perpetuate the dangerous, and costly, myth that more tests must equal better medicine.
Related posts:
- The media and their pro-screening bias
- Prostate cancer screening and the PSA test
- Will patients accept the new, evidence-based, breast cancer screening guidelines?
- Dr. John Corso: Another physician ignoring the evidence
- Prostate cancer screening in men over 75
- Chicago Sun-Times gets prostate cancer screening wrong
- Which cancer screening tests are really necessary?
{ 1 comment }
I’m not a guy, so I can’t comment on a couple of the aforementioned. However, if you have a family history of cancer, you are fair-skinned, and got sunburnt badly a few times in your pre-sunscreen youth, skin cancer screening is not a bad idea.
My father’s side has a strong hx of cancer – his mother died from leukemia when he was 14. My father and at least five of his six sibs (don’t know about my other uncle, who passed a few years ago) died from lung cancer – they all smoked.
My youngest sister had a basal cell carcinoma removed from her face a couple years ago.The middle sister is a tanning junkie. The penultimate sister has been living in Australia for the past 3 years (where skin cancer rates are among the world’s highest), and she smokes. I had laser conization when I was in college. It seems to me skin cancer screening – having your primary care doc look at all the places you can’t see and the places you aren’t aware of – for our family – is a pretty good idea, even though it falls outside the guidelines.
IANAD – what would you say, Kevin?
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