By Daniel MorganJuly 6, 2026
Morgan is an epidemiologist and physician and vice president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
American medicine runs more than 14 billion tests a year. While some tests can be lifesaving, many are used at the wrong time or on the wrong patient and are useless or even harmful.
The medical industry has spent enormous effort making more advanced tests but expended little effort learning how to use tests correctly. There is a science for how to better use tests, diagnostic stewardship, but most doctors have never heard of it.
As an infectious disease doctor, I see tests being misused daily. For example, urine cultures are one of medicine’s most overused tests. After a positive urine culture, patients without any symptoms of a urinary tract infection (UTI) usually start unnecessary and potentially harmful antibiotics. As we age and develop chronic illness, it becomes normal for bacteria to grow in the urine without causing problems. The unnecessary antibiotics that are used feed the bigger threat to our patients: antibiotic resistance, which means common antibiotics won’t work when we need them.
