Plans May Call for Annual Chlamydia Screening.
If you're not routinely screening sexually active young women for Chlamydia trachomatis now, your health plan may soon ask you to change your ways. Starting Jan. 1, 2000, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a group that tracks health plan performance, will add annual chlamydia screening...

Medical Screening and the Value of Early Detection.
When Unwarranted Faith Leads to Unethical Recommendations One of the basic principles of medical ethics is Primum non nocere, or "At least do no harm." One of the basic claims of this essay is that many of our current screening practices are inconsistent with this principle.[1] ...

Prevention efforts could save 100,000 lives a year.
Increasing the use of aspirin, colorectal cancer screening, influenza immunizations, and a few other simple preventive measures would save more than 100,000 lives each year in the United States, according to a new study. The biggest lifesaver identified in the study is aspirin. Researchers found that an...

St. John Surgery Center is Only Center in Michigan To Offer Digital Mammography for Commercial Use.
DETROIT, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The St. John Surgery Center in St. Clair Shores is now offering women a state-of-the-art full field digital mammography system potentially offering several advantages to both patients and physicians. The system, called Senographe 2000D, produces breast images through computerization rather...

CORRECTIONS.
Ronald Bailey's article, "Warning: Bioethics May Be Hazardous to Your Health," (August/September 1999) erroneously attributed a report that recommended withholding a test for breast cancer genes to USC's Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics. While that report was released at a conference organized by the center, it was...

UKNEQAS: table of annual charges (UK clinical laboratories) for participation in 1994-95.
UKNEQAS: TABLE OF ANNUAL CHARGES (UK CLINICAL LABORATORIES) FOR PARTICIPATION IN 1994-95 CLINICAL CHEMISTRY [a] Clinical Chemistry 300 Lead & Cadmium in Blood 140 Specific Proteins 140 Glycated Haemoglobins 140 Salicylate & Paracetamol 140 Urinary Albumin 140 Urinary Catecholamines & Metabolites 140 Neonatal Screening (PKU, TSH) 140 DRUGS OF...

Screenwacth.
Lest Bandolier seems to be nihilistic, a charge that some have levelled after the publication of the Bandolier screening Blacklist, we now publish a Screening Whitelist--tests for which there is adequate evidence of effectiveness. Perhaps there should also be a Screening Greylist of screening tests currently being offered to...

Value-based decision-making.
However obsessed we may become about evidence-based decision-making, decisions are never (or rarely) based solely on evidence alone. Two other factors have to be taken into account--resources (pretty obvious, this), and values (how individuals and society makes judgements about what they want). When different groups have different judgements about...

Bits and Pieces.
The generic drug pergolide may help control symptoms of restless legs syndrome. "Pergolide controls the number of leg movements during sleep," says Johns Hopkins researcher and neurologist Christopher Earley, "and this allows patients and even their bed partners to wake up feeling better rested." Digital-imaging techniques developed...

Melanoma screens deemed cost effective.
One-time melanoma screening in the general population for those aged 50 years and older was found to be very cost effective--comparable with screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer--in a computer simulation model. Similarly, the screening of siblings of melanoma patients every other year also was found...