New Women's Health Recommendations

" At issue in this week's new recommendations on mammograms and pap tests is the shift in thinking do more science driven standard against excessive testing and against what. Many of us have been conditioned to believe and it is strong connections to the debate over health care legislation that's emerging from congress. For more on that part of the story we're joined live on the KCBS news line by -- he's a Stanford law professor and one of the leading experts on the legal. Ethical and social issues surrounding health law. And the bio sciences professor Greeley thanks for joining us this morning. In the history of American health care have you ever seen anything like this happen before where scientific evidence comes out. And the vast majority of people say I don't know about that this is what avenue in the past I'm gonna continue doing it is there anything we can compare to this."

" I don't know I think we've -- somethin' kinda similar to this every time nutritional advice changes. And we're told which should give up a certain sort of food or not a certain sort of food I think clearly reaction to some of the antismoking. Findings with similar. So we do have there's a lot of inertia in human life and when we get used to something and it's hard for -- to give it up that's particularly true I think when it's substantive involves. Protecting ourselves against. Something is as scary as cancer."

" What -- the people involved in the cervical cancer test to have some history that's out this morning referred to. This current environment as a sort of perfect storm an unfortunate perfect storm in that you not only have. What you just described as human inertia but also the over lying discussion about health care and quote -- rationing their."

" Yeah I think that's credit check in terms of people who put out these reports they're timing couldn't have been worse because the way it gets tight and politically to the whole healthcare reform debate. I don't think it really. Deserves to be tied into the health care reform debate these recommendations couldn't come at any time in the last ten years or any time in the next twenty years. And in fact. The recommendation to move that mammograms screening from fifty years to forty years was very controversial. At the time it came out and there's a lot of fighting about that. When that happened -- ten -- fifteen years ago."

" So the question really is 44 science and for medicine the people who were were issuing these recommendations are indeed there have been involved in health care. Is to convince all of us something that seems counter intuitive that is. You know if if it's good to have the test once it's good that twice as good to have it twice in four times -- good to have a four times as often."

" Yeah yeah I think may be an analogy from different areas might help. We know that the slow you drive this sacred you are in terms of what's likely to be get killed by high speed in an accident. Does that mean national -- twenty on the freeway. There are costs. To increased safety precautions. And the cost could increase cancer screening and I don't mean dollar cost so that the dollar cost. The -- here include lots a lot of false positives. A false positive within the screening test says community might have cancer we better do some more tests. -- more tests. Our involve some physical discomfort some risk. And enormously anxiety. I can't imagine. How -- it must be. To wait for to retreat weeks go through biopsy after somebody said William had to have been finding your -- that may or may not be cancer will have to check that. For the earlier you scream the more this false positive should get them as false positives are hard on people. Other part of the medical system but they're also part on individuals. The word individual road between different and I want to stress here these are recommendations for changes in routine screening. People are different and if you doctors will know in some respects to treat different this doesn't necessarily apply to everybody. If you come from a family with a strong family history of breast cancer you your doctor may decide you should get mammograms before fifty. -- maybe even before forty. So this insane this is what the average person should do but not everybody -- rich people should. Talk to the doctors about what they themselves should do under these are."

" Professor Greeley thanks for your time this morning -- Greeley at Stanford law professor and one of the leading experts on the legal ethical and social issues surrounding health law. And the biosciences."