Overtreatment: India's Hidden Health Crisis

Modern medicine offers unprecedented capabilities, yet a growing problem of overtreatment and overmedication is emerging. This phenomenon often begins with an incidental finding from a test, leading to a cascade of further investigations and potentially permanent prescriptions. In India, overtreatment coexists with a lack of essential primary care for many.

Several factors drive this trend, including excessive and unnecessary screening and diagnostic tests, leading to false positives and anxiety. Healthcare fragmentation, with an overemphasis on specialist care, means patients are treated in parts rather than as a whole. This is particularly concerning for older adults, where polypharmacy affects about 49% of them.

The transformation of healthcare into a marketplace, where tests and procedures are seen as products, blurs the lines between necessary and unnecessary interventions. The fee-for-service model can reward activity over restraint. Patient expectations for tangible outcomes after consultations and defensive medicine also contribute.

Internationally, the 'Choosing Wisely' movement, active since 2012, identifies hundreds of tests and treatments that should be questioned. India needs to strengthen primary care, implement medication review dates on prescriptions, and develop lists of low-value interventions. Patients should ask key questions before undergoing tests or treatments, and payment systems must reward outcomes over volume.