Forty Years War

Do we really need another article covering the war on cancer screening? I think we do, because screeing is expensive, invasive, risky and controversial. 

In "Push for Cancer Screening, Limited Benefits," NYTimes writer Natsha Singer discusses the multi-billion dollar question: Is screening good or bad?

It's a difficult topic involving science, emotions, politics and, of course, money. One of the most challenging dilemmas is basing decisions for individual patients on information about populations of patients. I talk about this tangentially in Crapshoot.

As I see it, we'd do well to devote our energy to making sure everyone understands

• the strengths and weaknesses of using information about populations to help make decisions for individuals.We'll be in a lot better shape
• the difference between information obtained from observation, anecdote and science (experimentation)
• how to narrow the gap between knowing what to do and actualy doing it (i.e. how to overcome the obstacles to acting on sound knowledge in healthy ways)