Improper healthcare screening may give wrong impression

Star: PETALING JAYA: A proper healthcare screening must be related to a particular concern over a person's health condition or it could lead to high costs and unnecessary “panic” or “a false sense of confidence.”
“The first step is to simply not screen for no reason at all because it has very little medical basis,” Academy of Medicine College of Pathologists president Prof Dr Looi Lai Meng said.
She said this when asked to comment on Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek’s statement that health screening by untrained individuals or at hotels or shopping centres was illegal.
She said that indiscriminate screening, unrelated to a health condition, could cause the individual to panic and end up with a “huge medical bill” if the results were not good.
Alternatively, if the results were good the person could have a false sense of confidence.
She added that a person should first visit his doctor who must determine which test was relevant for him.
Dr Looi also urged people not to take the risk of illegal testing that might done by untrained people or those using questionable methods.
She said the role of pathology labs was important because health-screening tests required the use of proper techniques and the expertise of trained pathologists.