Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Diagnosis of a disease or medical condition more frequently than it is actually present.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine To diagnose something too frequently, or based on insufficient evidence

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

over- +‎ diagnosis

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Examples

  • And those include the possibility of having false positive tests, the need for having to go back for repeated X-rays and more tests, as well as additional biopsies that ultimately are not necessarily -- and also a problem we call overdiagnosis, which means that identifying cancerous lesions that in fact, are very, very limited and for reasons that we don't fully understand don't progress to become invasive cancer and that otherwise would be fine if left untreated.

    CNN Transcript Nov 17, 2009 2009

  • Work is under way to better predict that, and even the staunchest supporters of screening call overdiagnosis a problem that needs tackling.

    Cancers May Be Found, Treated Too Early 2010

  • And in some cases, early detection means doctors diagnose and treat cancers that would never have caused any harm if left alone -- a phenomenon known as overdiagnosis.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post News Editors 2011

  • Work is under way to better predict that, and even the staunchest supporters of screening call overdiagnosis a problem that needs tackling.

    NYT > Home Page 2010

  • The report of a so-called overdiagnosis rate of 35% came from an examination of breast cancer screening programs in five countries conducted by Danish researchers and published online Thursday in BMJ.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2009

  • The report of a so-called overdiagnosis rate of 35% came from an examination of breast cancer screening programs in five countries conducted by Danish researchers and published online Thursday in BMJ.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2009

  • This can result in the concept of overdiagnosis, which is the detection of latent disease that would not have been diagnosed in the patient's lifetime if screening for cancer had not taken place.

    Health News from Medical News Today 2009

  • The report of a so-called overdiagnosis rate of 35% came from an examination of breast cancer screening programs in five countries conducted by Danish researchers and published online Thursday in BMJ.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2009

  • The report of a so-called overdiagnosis rate of 35 percent came

    WN.com - Articles related to Bahraini Activist to Launch 'Breast Cancer' Awareness Drive 2009

  • This "overdiagnosis," the authors maintain, leads to costly, unnecessary medical interventions and promotes a culture of sickness rather than health.

    Insuring your health: Book argues against unnecessary medical intervention Michelle Andrews 2011

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