A leading epidemiologist and preventive health expert has criticised over-zealous promotion of health screening services by insurance companies and other commercial concerns who offer tests of “dubious benefit and possible harm”.
He claimed there is a culture emerging in which judgements on medical screening practice are being made in the absence of evidence. “The culture needs to change, so that screening is subject to professional scientific assessment,” he exclaimed.
He cautioned that, as yet, there have not been enough trials to show that computerised tomography (CT) scanning of the heart, nor virtual (CT) colonoscopy, are of benefit, and the X-ray radiation exposure involved in both procedures is a concern. He warned that if government regulation is to be avoided, health service providers, insurers and scientists must work together to produce a code of practice that will reassure the public and better enable them to judge the value of screening services.
