Abstract Increasingly, medical care targets conditions, like hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, which are defined as ranges of some clinical variable, not by any concrete physical pathology. These usually chosen from data on modifiable risk, well other empirical consequences. Such purported disease categories face three main criticisms, one practical two conceptual. The issue is overdiagnos...

BACKGROUND Computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA) may improve detection of life-threatening pulmonary embolism (PE), but this sensitive test may have a downside: overdiagnosis and overtreatment (finding clinically unimportant emboli and exposing patients to harms from unnecessary treatment). METHODS To assess the impact of CTPA on national PE incidence, mortality, and treatment com...