Many doctors are seeing the annual physical check as an old fashioned practice for people over 18 and under the age of 50 who are healthy. Some health experts say annual physicals are nothing but a waste of time and money for many people.
However, that is not the same with other doctors. Recent essays debating the annual physical in the New England Journal of Medicine made it clear. Dr. Ateev Mehorta from Harvard Medical School and epidemiologist Dr. Allan Prochazka of the Colorado School of Public Health view the annual physical as a ditch on an already poor medical system.
Collectively, these visits cost approximately $10 billion a year which similar to the annual costs of all lung-cancer care in the United States. Instead of an annual exam, doctors only make an appointment for physicals only with patients who are new to them, or who haven't been in the office for three or so years, the two doctors said.
However, Dr, Alan Goroll of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General explained that the annual visit shouldn't be taken for granted. It should rather be improved upon and seen as a chance to acknowledge physician-patient relationship.
Earlier this year, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a professor and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania told TODAY he is not saying patients shouldn't be checked out if they have a health condition. What he is talking about are health exams for no cause, but just because we do it as a routine. Dr. Emanuel also called the annual exam "basically worthless" in an Op-Ed in the New York Times.
People sometimes forget, Emanuel added, that unnecessary testing can come with a downside. He gave a benign biopsy as an example saying this procedure can cause pain, bleeding and infection. The most important thing is to build a relationship with your primary care physician. That might be done in an initial physical. Then, if you're found to be in great shape, and under the age of 50, you might not need to come back until you have an actual health problem.
