Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17144

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Report

Cassels A, van Wiltenburg J, Armstrong W
What’s in a Scan? How well are consumers informed about the benefits and harms related to screening technology (ct and pet scans) in Canada?
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 2009 Mar
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/2009/Whats_in_a_Scan.pdf

Abstract:

Private medical imaging companies in Canada are
marketing health screening services to consumers,
and yet the impacts of such screening have
not been well studied. When used as tools to diagnose
illness, CT (computed tomography) or PET
(positron emission tomography) machines can
be invaluable aids in determining a patient’s best
treatment options. But when otherwise healthy
people become convinced of the benefits of “predisease”
screening and pay to have heart, lung,
or full body scans performed, they are entering
a health-care marketplace that offers very few
protections. Screening tests being promoted to
Canadian consumers are often marketed under
the pretence that such screening can “save your
life” despite the fact that neither the scientific
literature nor professional or regulatory bodies
condone such practices. The potential for false
positive results (leading to cascading procedures,
unnecessary patient anxiety, patient harm from
radiation, as well as the potential harm to community
health systems) makes this an area worthy
of further study.