Sharing Data Meant Reduction Of Unnecessary Medical Tests (And Cost) In Sweden
Tuesday, July 23, 2013 - 17:50
in Health & Medicine
The rate of unnecessary cancer scans for low-risk prostate cancer patients - the kind of defensive medicine that is a large chunk of medical costs in America - plummeted in Sweden in the decade following a joint campaign to curtail such tests by Swedish County Councils and the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden. The results in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggest that reducing the costs of healthcare in the US - an urgent priority now that the government has mandated it and intends to subsidize it - can be achieved without significant risk. read more