Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care, by Gilbert Welch
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Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care, by Gilbert Welch
Ebook PDF Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care, by Gilbert Welch
The author of the highly acclaimed Overdiagnosed describes seven widespread assumptions that encourage excessive, often ineffective, and sometimes harmful medical care. You might think the biggest problem in medical care is that it costs too much. Or that health insurance is too expensive, too uneven, too complicated—and gives you too many forms to fill out. But the central problem is that too much medical care has too little value. Dr. H. Gilbert Welch is worried about too much medical care. It’s not to deny that some people get too little medical care, rather that the conventional concern about “too little” needs to be balanced with a concern about “too much”: too many people being made to worry about diseases they don’t have—and are at only average risk to get; too many people being tested and exposed to the harmful effects of the testing process; too many people being subjected to treatments they don’t need—or can’t benefit from. The American public has been sold the idea that seeking medical care is one of the most important steps to maintain wellness. Surprisingly, medical care is not, in fact, well correlated with good health. So more medicine does not equal more health; in reality the opposite may be true. The general public harbors assumptions about medical care that encourage overuse, assumptions like it’s always better to fix the problem, sooner (or newer) is always better, or it never hurts to get more information. Less Medicine, More Health pushes against established wisdom and suggests that medical care can be too aggressive. Drawing on his twenty-five years of medical practice and research, Dr. Welch notes that while economics and lawyers contribute to the excesses of American medicine, the problem is essentially created when the general public clings to these powerful assumptions about the value of tests and treatments—a number of which are just plain wrong. By telling fascinating (and occasionally amusing) stories backed by reliable data, Dr. Welch challenges patients and the health-care establishment to rethink some very fundamental practices. His provocative prescriptions hold the potential to save money and, more important, improve health outcomes for us all.
Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care, by Gilbert Welch - Amazon Sales Rank: #112004 in Books
- Brand: Welch, H. Gilbert, Dr.
- Published on: 2015-03-03
- Released on: 2015-03-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x .83" w x 6.25" l, 1.25 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 240 pages
Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care, by Gilbert Welch Review “Avoiding medical jargon, Welch speaks directly to the layperson and focuses on certain assumptions that have increased consumption in a market-driven society; some of which have become so ingrained by popular media that refuting them seems downright scandalous… Welch’s words, though wise beyond money, border on sacrilege in a country of generally healthy people who have developed an expensive health-care habit and who are expected to support a lucrative health-care industry. Welch’s conversational style makes his prescription for better health an easy pill to swallow.” —Booklist, starred review“A bright, lively discussion of the excesses of medical care to which patients often unwittingly go due to certain false assumptions… Welch demonstrates the flaws in these assumptions. His stories involve the risks, uncertainties and harms of cancer screenings, treatments for heart disease, drugs, medical devices and surgical procedures. He makes an especially strong case for the risks of mass screenings for cancer—the fear, the false alarms, the overdiagnoses and the resulting overtreatments. Vivid images make what could be discouragingly technical quite understandable… Welch's engaging style and touches of humor make this an easy read, and the facts he presents make a convincing case.”—Kirkus Reviews“Read this book. It is smart, witty, wonderfully written, and above all wise. We've overmedicalized life and yet we need medicine throughout our lives. No one explains better when we do, when we don't, and why.”—Atul Gawande, author of Complications and Being Mortal“Wise, witty, fascinating and alarmingly persuasive—this is a book everyone should read, especially my doctor.”—Bill Bryson, author of A Short History of Nearly Everything“With the style of a trustworthy country doctor, Welch, an academic heavyweight, urges us to reject the allure of reducing all health risks by using the latest technology to gather all the data and to fix the problems sooner rather than later. Showing the dangers of our ill-informed enthusiasm for medicine, he brilliantly builds the case for respecting its power and limitations: to seek it when ill and all but avoid it when healthy.”—Victor M. Montori, MD, Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic“Gil Welch's latest book shows us exactly how too much medical care can be harmful and even deadly. This is a needed corrective to the American attitude that the more screening and testing, the healthier we will be.”—Marcia Angell, author of The Truth About Drug Companies“Its title, ‘Less Medicine, More Health,’ sums up his trenchant, point-by-point critique of test-based health care and quality control.”—New York Times
About the Author Dr. H. Gilbert Welch is an academic physician, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School, and a nationally recognized expert on the effects of medical testing. He has been published in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on Today. Dr. Welch is the author of three previous books, including the highly acclaimed Overdiagnosed. He lives in Thetford, Vermont.
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Most helpful customer reviews
54 of 56 people found the following review helpful. Glad I didnt't read this book before my mother's back surgery By TooManyHobbies I wish I wouldn't have read this book. I say that not because the book was bad, but because it was too good. Some of the chapters just hit a little too close to home. One chapter in particular filled me with fear and another filled me with sorrow.I started reading the book when my 80 year-old mother went in for major back surgery. I breezed through the first four chapters during her five hours of surgery and two hours in post-op care. The chapters were educational and enlightening. Dr. Welch makes a very compelling case about how we are being over-diagnosed and over-treated. The tone of the book was witty, so I was chucking and nodding my head as I read about data overload, U-shaped curves, the general uselessness of screening, the harm that false alarms can cause, the analogy of types of cancers to barn-yard animals: cancer that will never cause a problem are turtles, cancers that can be fought are rabbits, and cancers you can do nothing about are birds.Then I got to Chapter 5 and the assumption: Action Is Always Better Than Inaction. First Dr. Welch gave some statistics on hospital infections after surgery: 1.7 Million "health care associated infections" associated with 98,987 deaths in 2002. Whoa doggie, my mom was in surgery. Next he talked about "postoperative cognitive dysfunction" after surgery particularly in the elderly. (Getting scare now - does 80 count as elderly?) Then he talked about needless surgery due to back pain, and how the majority of the time it doesn't work. I wanted to cry at this point, was mom doing this all for nothing? But I felt better when I read the statement: "Back surgery should only be done on patients who don't have back pain". My mom's surgery was to relieve nerve compression caused by severe scoliosis. But then the section on "invasive surgery" had me worried again: her cut was 15 inches long. And the section "Inaction = Allowing the Body to Heal" had me second guessing the decision to have the surgery. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions. I had to stop reading at this point.I started reading again a few weeks later only to begin Chapter 7 and the assumption: It's all About Avoiding Death. The central theme of the chapter is that sometimes the quality of life is more important than prolonging life by a few months. Particularly with painful, debilitating cancer treatments. This chapter had me sobbing with tears pouring from my eyes. It brought back so many sad memories that are still raw and close to the surface. Three years ago my little brother was diagnosed with colon cancer that had moved to his liver. He fought the "cancer" battle for two years (MD Anderson). He went through all the pain and suffering because he wanted to see his son graduate from high school, he wanted to see his daughter go to her first dance, he wanted to go to the beach one last time. During one treatment (they inserted a tube through his groin and were pumping chemo drugs directly into his liver) he went into cardiac arrest. The doctors brought him back, but later he told me he wished they would have let him die. He said the treatments were too much for his wife, his kids, his family, and him; that sometime the quality of life is more important than quantity. He said it is better to quickly die with dignity than to wither away in excruciating pain. All my brothers' words were being echoed back to me by Dr. Welch.I'm crying again. Excellent book but like I said I wish I had not read it.
62 of 66 people found the following review helpful. Pretty much covers the same ground that the author's previous two books covered By Worddancer Redux This is the third book in a series of books either authored or co-authored by Welch making the argument that we suffer potentially serious consequences from overdiagnosis and overtreatment. I've now read all three of them. The central points Welch makes in all of them are important ones, for both our personal health and the country's fiscal health: overtreatment is rife, dangerous, and hard to avoid. Welch makes the points persuasively, using the right blend of anecdote and (quasi-) technical explanation. (Think VERY hard before you have that prostate exam, that mammogram, that back surgery, and before you sign on to take statins for slightly elevated cholesterol.) But I don't think that it takes three books to make the argument; there is a lot of repetition and overlap. I would certainly recommend reading ONE of the books, and have in fact made that recommendation to friends, students and colleagues. But I can't recommend buying or reading all three: In my opinion, there simply isn't enough material to justify writing three books on the topic all directed at a popular/non-specialist audience. This third book is the most personal of the three books. But middle book, the co-authored OVERDIAGNOSIS, is the best.
40 of 44 people found the following review helpful. Another "must read" from a noted author By Dr. Cathy Goodwin As a long-time fan of Gilbert Welch, I was thrilled when this book showed up on my Vine list. I was not disappointed.It's important to understand that Less Medicine, More Health is much less detailed and technical than Overdiagnosed. I liked the technical info and the statistics but it would be too much for some readers. This book definitely appeals to a broader audience. The tone is lighter as well.However, Dr. Welch continues to make the point that much of medicine is not related to health. I really liked the way he attacked 7 common myths, such as the myth that more is better. Unfortunately a lot of primary care doctors either don't know or choose to ignore the realities. Dr. Welch gives an example of an educated person who is hounded by Kaiser Permanente because she chose not to have a mammogram. The nurse put on a campaign by phone and email that would be worthy of a used car sales person. In that case, the woman's doctor seemed to be an outlier in the system. I had an experience with an HMO that was so awful I transferred to a more expensive option to avoid the harassing "reminders" of unnecessary procedures. I've also had the experience of a doctor telling me that certain tests would "add ten years" to my life. Dr. Welch probably would say that's fraud.I particularly like Dr. Welch's realism about longevity. He points out that he's not likely to die from a heart attack and if he gets cancer, he'll avoid dementia and possibly years of incarceration (my word, not his) in an institution. I fit that profile myself. I'd add that after a certain age, many changes in the numbers signal just old age, not danger - a point he makes in Overdiagnosed - yet doctors insist on treating the numbers.I also picked up a subtle point: doctors are trained in the wrong thing. I know several med students in Philadelphia who study biochemistry yet have no training in decision science and poor training in statistics. Most doctors can't interpret statistics in a medical journal. If you ask your doctor about the standard deviation, you'll be shown the door.I see two problems with this book and they're not the author's fault.First, many people resist learning the facts. I recently had a dog park conversation with a successful attorney who said, "I don't want to know. I want to believe everything my doctor says is true." I've referred people on statins to Barbara Roberts's book, The Truth About Statins; they'd rather keep taking the drugs.I've heard this over and over again. It's like a religious belief. Sometimes I feel like telling them they could get the same feeling of security if they'd light a candle in their local church. And many doctors do nothing to discourage these attitudes.Second, we need better ways to fight back. Dr. Welch probably can't do this but we need ways to report doctors who dispense inaccurate information, hold out false promises and harass people who refuse useless procedures. In particular, many wellness programs penalize workers who decline tests that have no proven value. Again, it's not much different from imposing a penalty for refusing to follow a bizarre religious practice.At this point, I'd hesitate to see a doctor who hasn't heard of Gilbert Welch, let alone read him. The good ones have. I was referred to a dermatologist (minor bump, no pathology) who was excellent. Not surprisingly, he said, "Gilbert Welch? Yes. He's got some good things to say."
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