Five Medical Procedures You Probably Don’t Need, But Will Have Done Anyway

Actually, there are 45 medical tests that you probably don’t need, according to nine medical groups responding to findings that 30 percent of money spent on health care is wasted. The Boston Globe reports that the soon to be released list includes widely used treatments, such as giving antibiotics for colds that last a week or less or ordering brain scans for uncomplicated headaches in generally healthy, low-risk patients. It also includes bone scans for early-stage prostate and breast cancer with little chance of spreading. Wait, there’s more: the  group recommends against routine cancer screenings such as mammography, colonoscopy, prostate-specific antigen, and Pap smears for patients on dialysis with limited life expectancy. Read more in the Boston Globe.