National Action Plan
Initial Statement to underpin the development of a National Action Plan to Prevent Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment in Australia.
- Alongside the undisputed ability of healthcare to extend human life and ameliorate suffering, there is growing evidence and concern about the problem of too much medicine. Overdiagnosis and the related overuse of medical tests and treatments not only causes harm, but also divert resources from addressing underdiagnosis and undertreatment.
- There is need in Australia to identify the causes of too much medicine, the extent of the problem, and to develop responses to address it.
- There is an urgent need to better inform consumers, clinicians, decision-makers and the public about the evidence for, and the consequences of, overdiagnosis and related overtreatment, as part of a broader approach to inform people about the potential harms, as well as the benefits of medical tests and treatments.
- Expanding disease definitions and lowering diagnostic thresholds are recognised as one driver of the problem, and the processes for changing definitions require meaningful reform.
- We are committed to evaluation, to ensure that attempts to address too much medicine are both safe and fair for healthcare consumers and their families, and in turn help to optimise the Australian health system’s safety, efficiency and equity of access.
What next?
A National Summit was held in July 2017 to develop a National Action Plan to address these issues. Many of the attending organisations are already working in their own sphere to address overdiagnosis and overtreatment, but the Summit and National Action Plan has coalesced these threads into a united movement.
Here are some of the actions currently underway:
- Development of new information sheets for the public to help explain the issue;
- Education curricula being developed for medical students and health professionals; and
- Research projects evaluating strategies to wind back unnecessary diagnoses and treatment.
