Evidence & Economics, Emotion & Entitlement:The Politics of Proof in the Current Breast Cancer Debate

Posted on | November 20, 2009 | 1 Comment

Eric Dishman

I am not a breast cancer expert. Nor are the majority of you who are reading this. Nor are the hundreds of millions of Americans witnessing the media- and partisan-fed furor over the change in guidelines about breast cancer screening for women between 40 and 50 years of age. I’m pretty sure no one in Congress is a bona fide breast cancer expert. For that matter, neither are most physicians or nurses. And I’m willing to bet that most, if not all, of the news and radio personalities pontificating and practicing “armchair medicine” about breast cancer on the airwaves are untrained in advanced oncology or health outcomes research. Which is why someone–in this case the committee of actual breast cancer experts convened by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)–has to take on the challenge of researching, analyzing, and updating recommendations for the screening of breast cancer and hundreds of other conditions, tests, and therapies. (to continue…)

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Comments

One Response to “Evidence & Economics, Emotion & Entitlement:The Politics of Proof in the Current Breast Cancer Debate”

Mike Magee
November 20th, 2009 @ 11:44 am

Eric-

Thanks for this great piece. You do a terrific job laying out the issue. I agree we are at the beginning of a public debate over risk/benefit decisions including both quality of life and cost. It is part of our education as health consumers and health providers. One point I’d add is that there is a major battle going on under the surface among Academic Health Canters. The Dartmouth’s of the world are fully behind Clinical Effectiveness Research while other well known academic centers are working quietly behind closed doors to slow it down to preserve their own autonomy, local decision making AND cash flow. Thanks!

Mike