Preventing Overdiagnosis

Preventing Overdiagnosis Evidence, Equity and Post Pandemic Health Care will be hosted by the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada 9-12 June 2022.

We are accepting abstracts against the following themes, however this list is by no means exhaustive and we welcome submissions on all aspects of preventing Overdiagnosis:

• Equity & Equality: disparities in healthcare provision, marginalized populations, conflicts of interest driving inequity

• Sustainability and lessons learned from COVID-19: repurposing healthcare after a pandemic

• Medicalizing citizens: the harms of screening, disease thresholds, industry influences, the role of media

• The role of specialists in generating Overdiagnosis and their efforts to mitigate it

• Clinical Practice: Other dimensions of ODx, overtesting and the harms of too much medicine

We also bring you the Lisa M Schwartz Scholarship an opportunity that provides awardees with PODC registration, funding toward travel and accommodation and the opportunity to present at the conference.

Submissions (made through the abstracts portal) should address an issue of relevance to Dr Schwartz work and interests, and be consistent with the vision and values Dr Schwartz championed in the communication of risk.

The following statement was adopted by the participants at the end of the 6th Annual Conference held in Copenhagen on August 20– 22 2018.

On behalf of the Preventing Overdiagnosis Board, Scientific Committee and Local Organising Committee we want to thank you for attending the 6th Annual Conference held in Copenhagen on August 20– 22 2018.

The following statement was adopted by the participants at the end of the conference:

This conference regrets the fact that the draft Astana Declaration on Primary Health Care 2018 (From Alma-Ata towards Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals) makes no reference to the public health and clinical challenges of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. These challenges include direct harms to patients and citizens, misallocation of resources, and, over the longer term, they threaten the sustainability of universal healthcare systems and so undermine global health. Sustainable health systems must explicitly manage the twin problems of underuse and overuse.

http://www.who.int/primary-health/conference-phc/DRAFT-Declaration–9-April-2018.pdf