Overuse of Diagnostic Tests in Canada: A Critical Perspective

Authors

  • Julia Borges Division of Community Health and Humanities and Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada
  • Tiffany Lee Division of Community Health and Humanities and Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada
  • Abdullah Saif Division of Community Health and Humanities and Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada
  • Amit Sundly Division of Community Health and Humanities and Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada
  • Fern Brunger Division of Community Health and Humanities and Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7202/1060910ar

Keywords:

risk, diagnostic tests, health professions, patient care, normality

Language(s):

English

Abstract

In this commentary we describe the interplay between 1) contemporary popular and professional understandings of “risk” and “normality” in health and healthcare, and 2) the promotion by state and market forces of individual self-regulation of health. We draw upon the work of critical theorists who have described the relationship between risk, fear, and the notion of “normal” in health discourse to argue that these factors act, primarily via the popular media, to shape the discourse on, and overuse of, diagnostic tests in Canada.

Open issue, (c) Emanuelle Dufour

Downloads

Published

2019-04-29

How to Cite

[1]
Borges J, Lee T, Saif A, Sundly A, Brunger F. Overuse of Diagnostic Tests in Canada: A Critical Perspective. Can. J. Bioeth 2019;2:39-41. https://doi.org/10.7202/1060910ar.

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2019): Open Issue

Section

Critical commentaries

License

Copyright (c) 2019 Julia Borges, Tiffany Lee, Abdullah Saif, Amit Sundly, Fern Brunger

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Canadian Journal of Bioethics applies the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License to all its publications. Authors therefore retain copyright of their publication, e.g., they can reuse their publication, link to it on their home page or institutional website, deposit a PDF in a public repository. However, the authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy their publication, so long as the original authors and source are cited.