Exclusive: Alzheimer’s blood tests should not be used on their own and risk leading people to believe they are inevitably going to develop dementia Researchers have warned that social media may be misleading healthy people into taking Alzheimer’s blood tests, causing severe anxiety over biological markers that may never actually cause dementia. Blood-based biomarker tests, such as p-tau217 and p-tau181, detect biological signs of changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, which is a progressive brain disorder and the leading cause of dementia. Continue reading...

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of clinician-directed default nudges for reducing overuse of tests and treatments. Design A systematic review was conducted to synthesise evidence from randomi...

The U.S. suffers from a mass exodus of primary care doctors, as medical practice is dictated by corporate masters at the expense of physicians and patients.

In 2024 the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) revised its breast cancer screening (BCS) guidelines to recommend that all women scr…

YouTube video by The University of Sydney

Background: Low-value care exposes patients to unnecessary risk and wastes scarce health resources. We aimed to determine if patient- or clinician-directed nudges could reduce low-value care for low b...

Audit and feedback provided nationwide to high-requesting Australian GPs substantially reduced overall requests for ten commonly overused pathology test combinations when compared with no intervention...

Digital reminders are widely used in clinical trials, but their design is rarely evidence-based. We evaluated the effectiveness of two types of digita…

Background: Low-value care exposes patients to unnecessary risk and wastes scarce health resources. We aimed to determine if patient- or clinician-directed nudges could reduce low-value care for low b...

Experts warn of ‘over-diagnosis’ dangers as social media prompts the worried well to seek out unnecessary and expensive scans and blood tests * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Medical tests are marketed on social media as a way to empower people to take control of their health, but experts are warning to be wary of the harms influencers don’t mention. Three controversial tests – full-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, blood tests for testosterone levels and the Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) or “egg-timer” test, which surveys a woman’s egg count – are the focus of a campaign backed by the University of Sydney based on its own research trying to combat misinformation online. Continue reading...

Experts warn of ‘over-diagnosis’ dangers as social media prompts the worried well to seek out unnecessary and expensive scans and blood tests

YouTube video by The University of Sydney

YouTube video by The University of Sydney

YouTube video by 7NEWS Australia

This randomized clinical trial investigates whether providing primary care physicians (PCPs) with 1 vs 2 or more appropriate treatment alternatives in a choice set has an effect on the odds that they ...

Researcher points to ‘medicalisation of masculinity’ after investigating how men’s health is being monetised online “If you’re not waking up in the morning with a boner, there’s a large possibility that you have low testosterone levels,” an influencer on TikTok with more than 100,000 followers warns his viewers. Despite screening for low testosterone being medically unwarranted in most young men, this group is being aggressively targeted online by influencers and wellness companies promoting hormone tests and treatments as essential to being a “real man”, a study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine has found. Continue reading...

This cohort study compares the rates of test ordering by clinicians and test completion by patients at virtual vs in-person annual primary care visits.

It’s tempting to dismiss the proliferation of labels as a fad, but there’s more to this phenomenon than a simple culture-war reading allows

Please join us for this in-person event. The session will open with Dr Charlotte Blease  who will present on her new book, Dr Bot: Why Doctors Can Fail Us — and How AI Could Save Lives . Thi...

Researcher points to ‘medicalisation of masculinity’ after investigating how men’s health is being monetised online

Our current approach to mental health labelling and diagnosis has brought benefits. But as a practising doctor, I am concerned that it may be doing more harm than good

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the role of social media for official health communication, especially for young people who rarely engage with other public health agency channels. This study expl...

Effective science translation is essential during public health emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly evolving research had to be transla…

Direct to consumer hormone panels risk misleading patients and undermining evidence-based practice, warn researchers.