Vitals Spotlight - We Give the Doctor an Exam

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Are mammograms unnecessary for women until they turn 50? Have the politics on health care reform gotten in the way of doing what’s best for the prevention of breast cancer? Will this effect insurance coverage for the procedure?

Addressing one of the questions, The Obama Administration announced government insurance programs would continue to cover routine mammograms for women starting at age 40, reports today’s New York Times.

This was in response to the Preventative Services Task Force recommendations that women not start routine mammograms until they are aged 50, instead of 40. The research showed that benefits gained starting at aged 40 were small. The downside of earlier screenings was that they lead to excess biopsies, unnecessary anxiety as well as discovery and treatment of tumors that would not cause problems if left alone.

The Physician Data Query Group, a physician group that evaluates new research on cancer research for the National Cancer Institute, recommended that the task force’s evidence be added to all information passed onto doctors and the public.
Members of the group were frustrated that mammogram screenings had become the center of political debate.

One member of the Physician Date Query, Dr. Russell Harris, a former member of the Preventative Services Task Force, explained that when the old guidelines were released by the task force in 2002 there had been less research on the topic.

According to Vitals.com, Dr. Russell received his medical degree at John Hopkins University and completed his specialty training at Duke University.

The Democrats believe the timing of the study’s release was just another opportunity for Republicans to raise doubts about the health care plan now being prepared for a vote in the Senate. Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human services, assured the country that their policies remain unchanged on this issue. She pointed out that the task force is an outside independent panel of doctors and scientists who make recommendations but don’t set federal policy.

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Tags: Breast Cancer Screening Policy, Dr. Russell Harris, excess biopsies, Kathleen Sebelius, mammograms, National Cancer Institute, Physician Data Query Group, President Barack Obama, Preventative Services Task Force, The Obama Administration

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Front Page News, Healing Power, Medical Research, National Health Care, President Obama Administration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.