Screening and overdiagnosis

All clinicians need to be mindful of overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis happens when a patient’s diagnosis causes them more harm than good. This can happen when a healthy person undertakes a screening test and is diagnosed with a very early form of a disease, but that disease would never have developed further to cause your patient any symptoms.^1,2
Harms of overdiagnosis include:

• physical and financial harm from unnecessary treatment
• stress and anxiety for patients, their families and carers
• potential for cascading of follow-up tests and/or treatments
• harms to other patients from an overburdened health system.¹