Inaccurate and unreliable medical tests are prompting abortions, promoting unnecessary surgeries, putting tens of thousands of people on unneeded drugs and raising medical costs, the Food and Drug Administration has concluded. Life-threatening diseases go undetected in some cases. In others, patients are treated for conditions they do not have.
“Patients have been demonstrably harmed or may have been harmed by tests that did not meet F.D.A. requirements.”
The findings come at a time when the use of laboratory-developed tests is booming.
This sobering article should give one pause for thought. Tests are not the definitive answer we often think (and h ope) they are. See: F.D.A. Targets Inaccurate Medical Tests, Citing Dangers and Costs (NY Times, 11.24.15)