How can routine colorectal cancer screening in the USA be considered low value in other countries?

Low-value services and healthcare overuse are tests, treatments or other medical interventions that provide little to no benefit to patients relative to their risk of harm, their costs and the availability of alternatives.1 Researchers investigating overuse usually base their measures on compliance with some defined standard of care, which can be country or region specific. In some countries, these standards might be based on trade-offs between population costs and outcomes. However, this is often not the case in the USA.2 For example, colonoscopy for the screening of colorectal cancer is routine care in the US, while other countries' national standards of care recommend against its use due to the availability of alternative methods that are less invasive and less costly. In this editorial, we consider why differences exist in what is considered overuse in light of a recently published US-based measure of colonoscopy screening overuse....
Source: Quality and Safety in Health Care - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Editorials Source Type: research