Too Much Medicine Happens Too Often:The Teachable Moment and a Call for Manuscripts from Clinical Trainees.

“Too Much Medicine Happens Too Often: The Teachable Moment and a Call for Manuscripts from Clinical Trainees.” By Tanner J. Caverly, MD, MPH, Brandon P. Combs, MD; Christopher Moriates, MD; Neel Shah, MD, MPP; Deborah Grady, MD, MPH, JAMA Internal Medicine.

A columnist at the New York Times asked readers, “Have you experienced too much medicine?” She received more than 1000 responses detailing examples ranging from unnecessary testing and hospitalizations to useless office visits and specialist referrals.1 Patients are not the only ones worried about too much medicine: 42% of a national sample of primary care physicians believe that patients in their own practice are receiving too much medical care.2 Too much medicine, or overuse, occurs in at least 3 contexts: when benefits from medical care are negligible, when the potential for harm exceeds the potential benefit, or when a fully informed patient would decide to forego the service.

Teachable Moments is a new focus in JAMA Internal Medicine to improve recognition among trainees of all levels of the harms that result from the overuse of health care services.

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