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News and Public Affairs
Aspen Ideas Festival

How Useful is Medical Screening?

The Aspen Ideas Festival is the nation's premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to engage in deep and inquisitive discussion of the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times.

How Useful is Medical Screening?

Season 1 Episode 26 | 52m 41s

Science tells us that medical screening sometimes saves lives — but can also lead to overdiagnosis, overtreatment and medical harm. Screening can produce false positives, finding disease that isn’t there; false negatives, missing signs of very real disease; or ambiguous information that confounds patient and doctor alike.

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The Aspen Institute produces the Aspen Ideas Festival in concert with its partner, The Atlantic.

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