L

Lord Winston (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 22 April 2025

Debate

Electrocardiogram Screening

Contribution

My Lords, in one study of over 600 patients, the false positive results of screening of this kind were as high as about 70%, and the negative results were about 7%—there probably would have been more had there been longer follow-up. The risk, of course, is that vast numbers of false positives cause massive anxiety, and considerable expense to the health service, with further testing that is completely unnecessary. This happened in my own case over 20 years ago—finally, my heart decided that I was still alive. This is a real issue in this era of preventive medicine: we have to choose the right test, and I doubt the electrocardiogram is accurate enough.

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