Talk:Unnecessary health care

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A fact from Unnecessary health care appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 July 2011 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the fee-for-service model encourages overutilization, which is a major factor behind the high cost of U.S. health care?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/July.

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Defining inappropriate care[edit]

This article discusses some challenges in knowing if care is appropriate or not. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1107283 Jesanj (talk) 20:55, 19 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Definitions[edit]

Overuse is defined as when the potential for harm of a health care service exceeds the possible benefit. http://iom.edu/Reports/1998/Statement-on-Quality-of-Care-National-Roundtable-on-Health-Care-Quality--The-Urgent-Need-to-Improve-Health-Care-Quality.aspx

Definition used by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: http://psnet.ahrq.gov/popup_glossary.aspx?name=underuseoverusemisuse

Defintiion used in a Kaiser Health News interview: http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/April/07/KHN-Interview-with-Rosemary-Gibson.aspx

Unnecessary treatment (surgery) was defined by Dr. Lucian Leape. "No operation is necessary if it is ineffective, if it does not accomplish its objective for a clinical situation.... An operation is unnecessary if it confers no clear advantage over a less risks alternative. In both instances the operation does not represent a net benefit to the patient. The patient will not be better off." http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.pu.13.050192.002051. Note this link only has an abstract. Have to pay for the aricle. This quote is in The Treatment Trap and I copied it here..

Can also use the definitions of overutilization already in the wikipedia entry on overutilization.

The purpose here is to distinguish between things that are merely unnnecessary, and the things that cause harm, e.g. overuse. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Patientadvocate100 (talk • contribs) 16:49, 1 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I changed the name of the article from "overutilization" to "unnecessary health care". I am not sure what the correct name is. The most common term in medical literature is "overutilization". However, I do not feel that this is a term which is used by non-professionals, and I thought since that was a majority audience for this article then the name "unnecessary health care" would be better. "Overtreatment" is another good name for this concept but the content of this article describes types of overutilization and unnecessary health care which may not be "overtreatment". If anyone has comments about the best name for this article then share. Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:06, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Use" is a noun or a verb, "utility" is the participle, "utilize" is a verb made (up) from the participle, and "utilization" is a noun derived from the participle/verb, so "overutilization" is the long way to spell overuse - they have the same meaning in theory. If they differ in practice, it is derived. Why not use the original, short, "correct" word?Gigemag76 (talk) 19:34, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See also to Big Pharma[edit]

User:Kku please provide some rationale for including "big pharma" as a "see also" that makes sense per MOS:SEEALSO. about your edit here, Daily Mail is not reliable for much of anything (see the just-concluded RfC and the many links in it to past discussions, here). The Forbes article you linked to is by a "contributor" which means it is an SPS blog, and also not a reliable source. See this RSN thread. And in any case, that blog posting is not about unneccessary care (like a diagnostic test offered by a doctor to avoid getting sued for malpractice) but about cost, especially for specialty drugs, which is an entirely different issue. Jytdog (talk) 10:55, 9 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Given your line of reasoning, you ought to also purge mentions defensive medicine. Because, as you yourself might also easily infer, drugs have a price. Unnecessary costs are major factor in the entire complex (if it weren't for them, media coverage might be even lower than it is) All of which puts your views in a dubious light.

-- Kku 11:14, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

I'm afraid that isn't a rationale for referring to Big Pharma. The reference to defensive medicine cites an academic article which identifies its relevance. --ChrisSampson87 (talk) 13:37, 9 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You don't appear to understand what this article is about, Kku. Nothing I said would imply we should purge defensive medicine, which i explicitly mentioned. If you want to keep at this, please actually read this article and before you reply again. Jytdog (talk) 20:02, 9 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]