Sunday, January 29, 2012

How many years do you have left?

I just finished submitting a manuscript that looked at the differences in laboratory testing expenditures over time (a pretty staggering increase over a ten-year period in case anyone was wondering) and tried to understand what explains these increases.  It seems pretty innocuous, a blood test here, a bacterial smear there.  But its adding up fast.  Is it that we're sicker than we used to be, is the Canadian population getting older, does new technology cost that much more or is it just plain ol' over-testing?