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Public health researchers at the University of Sydney will tackle one of the biggest issues facing modern healthcare - turning healthy people into sick patients due to overdiagnosis and overtreatment made possible by new, highly-sensitive screening and diagnostic tests.

A panel of seven experts will聽explore the hotly debated topic of overdiagnosis and overtreatment at a from 6pm on Monday 30 May the university.

鈥淲e will consider a radical idea that sometimes wiser healthcare means less healthcare. Or at least, less healthcare for people who don鈥檛 need it, so we can give more healthcare to people who need it,鈥� said, from the University鈥檚 School of Public Health.

The research team was recently awarded a $2.5 million NHRMC grant to聽establish a Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) to develop strategies to mitigate the over-diagnosis and overtreatment issue.

鈥淩ecently, we have witnessed an explosion of new diagnostic and screening technologies available including advanced imaging, biomarkers and genomic tests - some of these tests are even marketed directly to the public,鈥� added Professor Barratt,聽CRE Chief Investigator.

鈥淚deally these tests improve health by identifying diseases or risks that need to be treated. However, sometimes these tests lead to over-diagnosis and overtreatment which not only harms patients but wastes health resources through unnecessary procedures.

鈥淭he CRE will focus on cancer and cardiovascular disease - new diagnostics are already appearing in clinical use in these areas, and these diseases account for a large burden of death, disease and health care spending in Australia.

Public health researcher and ethicist , said 鈥淢ost importantly, this research is about improving health outcomes for patients, in Australia and internationally."

鈥淥ur findings will assist patients, citizens, healthcare funders and health professionals to adopt helpful new technologies and avoid harmful new technologies to get the best possible outcomes from our healthcare system.鈥�

, health psychologist said 鈥淲e are an internationally leading, multidisciplinary team and Australia is at the forefront of this new area of research. This funding puts us in a unique position to continue and expand the world class work we are doing."

The Centre for Research Excellence is the first part of a cross-institutional collaboration 鈥� Wiser Healthcare: a research collaboration to reduce overdiagnosis and overtreatment. The collaboration will link researchers in the University of Sydney, Bond University, Monash University and the George Institute with funding from National Health and Medical Research Council.