India's overtesting may harm health

India's urban diagnostic labs sell packaged test bundles (silver, gold, platinum) without requiring doctor prescriptions.

Corporate wellness programmes and insurance plans include full-body checkups as perks, encouraging overtesting of healthy people.

Overtesting leads to unnecessary follow-up scans and biopsies, causing anxiety and potential harm.

Dr. Haripriya Jagadish of Apollo Spectra Hospital, Chennai, says tests should be based on individual history and symptoms per evidence-based medicine.