 | Stacy Carter Professor and Director - Research for Social Change, Faculty of Social Science, The University of Wollongong |
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03.04.2018-27.04.2018
Conceptual and Ethical Challenges of Overdiagnosis
The overall objective of the residency is to extend and deepen our understanding of ODx and the associated ethical issues. Our focus will be in these three areas:
1. Explore the similarities and differences between various approaches to the definition of ODx, and identify common ground. The applicants have each developed a conception or definition of ODx; these are to some extent incommensurable. However, it will be valuable to develop our best effort at a common definition, as this will help with measuring ODx.
2. Refine the understanding of harm in the context of ODx. We share the view that harm is central to understanding ODx. A residency will allow us to work together on how harm should be conceptualised to be relevant to this field. We will investigate the relationship between harm and disease in general, and harm and ODx of conditions in particular.
3. Investigate and analyse the ethical issues raised by ODx. We share an interest in how ethical challenges arise and how ethical tensions may be conceptualised and addressed. The residency will allow us to ‘drill down’ into some of these issues in detail. We are concerned, for example, about the potential impact of normalised overdiagnosing practices on access to medical care, as these redirect healthcare resources away from effective interventions and towards ineffective interventions.
Stacy Carter is Professor and Director of Research for Social Change, a research centre of the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Wollongong. Her research focuses on the political, social and ethical dimensions of public health and human wellbeing. Her work is designed to bring the perspectives of the public and health professionals into policymaking in domains including vaccination, screening, de-implementation and especially overdiagnosis. She is a member of the Wiser Healthcare Collaboration (wiserhealthcare.org.au), an NHMRC-funded program of research to address overdiagnosis and overtreatment. She tweets sporadically: @stacymcarter
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