Illustration: Getty Images

Summary:
• Overusing antibiotics and medical imaging can be harmful.
• More than half of all antibiotic prescriptions are medically unnecessary.
• One-third of imaging tests such as MRIs may be unnecessary.

Larry Stybel thought he just had a nasty case of the flu. He urged his doctor to give him antibiotics, even though such drugs can’t cure the flu or any other virus. His doctor reluctantly gave him the prescription, but it did no good.

Within days, Stybel was in the hospital with a 106-degree fever and his vital organs were on the verge of shutdown. He had been infected by the deadly MRSA bacteria, which kills 20 percent of its victims and is resistant to antibiotics. The bacteria, which Stybel thinks he may have picked up at a local gym, has flourished because of the widespread overuse of antibiotics.

Stybel, 62, a management psychologist from suburban Boston, survived his medical ordeal. In the process, he learned a vital lesson: “Don’t assume that antibiotics are only good,” said Stybel, whose dog caught the superbug from him and died.

Massachusetts consumer groups are working to reduce the use of some medical procedures—not just to cut the cost of care, but to improve its quality. The Partnership for Healthcare Excellence, a coalition that includes AARP, plans to launch an education campaign in late fall to warn consumers of the danger of overusing antibiotics and medical imaging. The campaign may include newspaper, radio and billboard advertising as well as posters for doctors’ offices and videos for the Web and local hospitals.

“I know it sounds simplistic, but more of a good thing can be bad,” said Deborah Banda, AARP Massachusetts senior state director.

More than half of all antibiotic prescriptions are medically unnecessary, wasting $1.1 billion annually and causing patients needless suffering from the drugs’ side effects, says the New England Healthcare Institute. Even worse, antibiotic overuse makes the drugs less effective and hastens the spread of superbugs—antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

Similarly, excessive high-tech imaging wastes billions of dollars and can cause serious health problems. Nationally, about $100 billion a year is spent on MRIs, CT scans and other imaging studies, yet one-third may be unnecessary, said Shawn Farley, spokesman for the American College of Radiology.

“You don’t want CT scan after CT scan or you’re at increased risk for getting cancer,” said Harris Berman, M.D., vice dean at Tufts University School of Medicine.

1 | 2