Doctors order needless scans on the elderly because they fear talking about death, study suggests

Doctors order needless scans on the elderly because they fear talking about death, study suggests (msn.com)

 

Of course a study of this sort will never identify the 679 procedures that weren't done in other people and might have been of use. This sort of moralising overgeneralising approach to medicine has always been around and should be ignored. All a doctor can do is make the best decision they can at the time. If there is a lack of information then it is more sensible to investigate. With a system of people being shunted around without any continuity lack of information is everywhere, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do the tests.

 

This smells strange to me

although I guess it depends how they count one fir things like x-rays?

I’m imagining most were in hospital anyway. And I also imagine because of the nature of what happens when you are ill with other things most had had falls before or ‘to’ end up there

so if 4 x-rays per person is because eg the metaphorical equivalent of each finger counts as a separate x ray so just to check their left side is technically five but all done in one go then maybe


But otherwise it feels an error in the data and not a phenomenon there’s no way it would get past things for some old dear to be wheeled to x-ray five times in a week ? Not for no reason?

 

Yes there are indications of selective descriptions of their sample ie wheedling

ave age 88

96 patients in six months

claims this accounted for a quarter of patients 80yr or over who died during this time, but doesn’t define how many that was OF their sample.

could easily have been that half the sample were early 70s with something potentially treatable . Isn’t it more likely too that a x ray for a broken hip reveals eg cancer or some other condition needs to be looked into when it’s an older person just due to nature of prevalence

and I know three women who were in their 90s when cancer was found and treated.

they haven’t confirmed convincingly these shouldn’t have been done ?

what do the medics being spoken for think of this sort thing? It’s interesting seeing them having words potentially put in their mouths.