[In Press] Teaching to address overdiagnosis

Overdiagnosis is a concept that presents both opportunities and challenges in medical education. Overdiagnosis can be considered the detection or labelling of a condition that was never going to cause harm, or the application of a diagnostic label to ordinary life experiences. Multiple drivers to overdiagnosis have been identified and health professionals are one of the drivers. Doctors, in particular, play a critical role in making diagnoses, meaning they are an integral part of any pathway, leading to overdiagnosis. While including overdiagnosis in a medical curriculum has been suggested, there is no agreement about what ought to be taught. This lack of consensus is a reflection of the lack of clarity about overdiagnosis in general. An understanding of the terminology can be useful before considering the place of overdiagnosis within medical curriculum (table 1). Preventing overdiagnosis is a key step in reducing many of the potential harms of low-value care.