Objectives:
To introduce the concept of over-diagnosis, and discuss the benefits and harms of newer disease definitions, treatments, and technologies, to enable effective clinical decisions.

Description:
Recent evidence from the British Medical Journal’s (BMJ) 'Too Much Medicine' campaign will be shared to highlight the threat posed to human health by a growing medical culture of over-diagnosis. In case studies on dementia, gestational diabetes, chronic kidney disease, participants will explore newer diagnostic and treatment guidelines, that wrongly label patients as having a disease and subject them to unnecessary care, and potential harm. The incentives that may be driving these and existing gaps in evidence on the same will be highlighted. In small groups, participants will discuss experiences where elements of over-diagnosis and over-treatment were witnessed and resulted in harm. Editors from The BMJ will then facilitate a larger discussion on the following topics:
- methods to measure and report the problem of over-diagnosis;
- strategies to ensure appropriate translation of evidence into screening and treatment guidelines, and into clinical practice through training of health professionals and awareness generation among the public and policy makers;
- building on efforts across the globe to restrict the harms from expanding disease definitions and to challenge perverse incentives that drive over-diagnosis and over-treatment.