Absolutely. It's called lead time bias, and there's a great illustration on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

Absolutely. It's called lead time bias, and there's a great illustration on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time_bias Gil Welch at Dartmouth is one of the experts in unnecessary medical screening and lead time bias. He's written numerous academic and media articles, especially regarding lung, breast, and prostate cancer screening. Also an amazing public speaker: http://tdi.dartmouth.edu/faculty/h-gilbert-welch-md-mph http://tdi.dartmouth.edu/faculty/h-gilbert-welch-md-mph