Media stories about early detection tests for healthy people follow a ‘disturbing’ pattern of hyping the benefits while virtually ignoring the harms of overdiagnosis, Australian research has found.

From ‘lifesaving’ Apple watches that monitor AF to ‘100% accurate’ tests that detect dementia six years early, media coverage of such innovations are overwhelmingly upbeat, reveals the study by Assistant Professor Ray Moynihan, from Bond University on the Gold Coast.

He and colleagues say the increasing availability of sensitive new tests is contributing to overdiagnosis, which has the potential to harm healthy people.

“We found a disturbing pattern of stories hyping benefits, failing to mention potential harms, and ignoring the conflicts of interest of those promoting the new technologies,” Professor Moynihan and fellow author University of Sydney researcher Dr Mary O’Keefe (PhD) said in a piece for The Conversation about their study.