The effects of the “incidental finding”
The downside of patients demanding evidence-bereft screening tests and scans: “‘Increased use of scanning technology raises the likelihood of the ‘serendipitous detection’ of abnormalities, said Dr. H. Gilbert Welch of the Department of Veterans Affairs in White River Junction, Vt., and Dartmouth Medical School. ‘This is a side effect of our ability to see things so well,’ he said, ‘and it’s a double-edged sword. The
conventional wisdom is that early detection improves health. But this
assumption may be wrong.'”
