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.