Many Current Medical Tests and Procedures Offer No Net Benefits.

A new analysis documents 146 contemporary medical practices, such as tests and procedures, that have subsequently been reversed over the past 10 years. Investigators evaluated 1344 original articles from the New England Journal of Medicine that examined a new medical practice or tested an established one. Only 27% of articles testing a practice tested an established one. Of the articles that tested current medical practice, 40.2% found these practices to be ineffective. Another 38% reaffirmed the value of current practice, and 21.8% were inconclusive. The findings are published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.