Keywords: Overdiagnosis, Overtreatment, Polypharmacy, Quaternary Prevention, Medical Review, Deprescribing

Justification:

In recent decades, medicine has made great strides; advances in diagnostic techniques, drug therapies and new surgical techniques have led to significant improvements in care. However, there are some negative aspects of this medical progress, related to inappropriateness or side effects.
A particularly significant example concerns overtesting (especially in screening), overdiagnosis and overtreatment, especially polypharmacy in the elderly, with a raised risk of adverse drug reactions and drug interactions.
Quaternary prevention is defined as any action taken to protect persons from medical interventions that are likely to cause more harm than good. This concept might be a tool that, to some extent, could help clinicians in preventing overdiagnosis and inappropriate prescriptions. In an era of increasing medicalization, quaternary prevention is crucial for promoting patient-centered care, enhancing the quality of life, and ensuring a balanced approach to healthcare.

Objective:

To spread knowledge about the problem of overdiagnosis and overtreatment among rural GPs.
To understand the risk of overdiagnosis deriving from exams and imaging for individual health assessment in asymptomatic people.
To explore potential strength, limitations and risk of quaternary prevention.
To spread the concept of polypharmacy, medical review and deprescribing.
To promote a more sustainable, ethical and patient centred approach in everyday practice.

Organisation:

Brief presentation by the workshop leader. Participants will be invited to discuss five different interactive clinical cases focusing on potential benefits and harms in cancer screenings, overdiagnosis in the setting of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention and inappropriate prescriptions. At the end, outcomes will be summarized in a plenary session.

Participation:

Interactive participation of rural practising GPs and nurses. Estimated number of participants: maximum 50.

Expected outcomes:

Learning how to reduce and prevent over-testing, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, especially polypharmacy in elderly patients. Learning how to raise awareness of the problem and inform patients.