H. Gilbert Welch

H. Gilbert Welch MD, MPH is professor of Medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. His research has focused on the problems created by medicine's efforts to detect disease early: physicians test too often, treat too aggressively and tell too many people that they are sick. Much of his work has focused on overdiagnosis in cancer screening: in particular, screening for melanoma, thyroid, lung, breast and prostate cancer. His first book, SHOULD I BE TESTED FOR CANCER? Maybe not and here's why (UC Press 2004) was written while he was a Visiting Scientist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer and was one of the six "best books" listed by Malcolm Gladwell in The Week. His second book (with colleagues Drs Schwartz and Woloshin) was OVERDIAGNOSED: Making people sick in the pursuit of health (Beacon Press 2011). He recently published his third book LESS MEDICINE, MORE HEALTH – 7 Assumptions the Drive Too Much Medical Care (Beacon Press 2015).