"Just say no to your doctor"

Another terrific article by Sharon Begley, Newsweek's science writer, about the limits of modern medicine.  This time she tackles the questionable medical value of medical tests, which more and more studies show lead to no improvements in health, and occasionally worse health outcomes, in the form of side effects and unnecessary surgery.

This would make an excellent companion piece to the alternative medicine article in The Atlantic that I wrote about earlier this year (June 25) and Begley's excellent article on the placebo effect, that I wrote about back in 2008 (March 31).