Incidental findings and overdiagnosis in children — branching viva

Station opening

Examiner: Define overdiagnosis in one sentence a parent could understand, then distinguish it from a false-positive test and from underdiagnosis. ^[1]

Strong candidate: ^[1]

• Overdiagnosis means we found something that looks like a disease label, but it would not have harmed the child if we had never looked — and the label still leads to more tests or treatment. ^{[2] [1]}
• A false positive is a wrong abnormal result (contamination, wrong range). Overdiagnosis can involve a “true” abnormality that still never would have mattered. ^[2]
• Underdiagnosis is missing disease that is present and matters. Restraint is not an excuse to underdiagnose. ^[3]