The at-risk health status and technology: A diagnostic invitation and the ‘gift’ of knowing

In the past two decades, the medical model has extended its jurisdiction to cover a new medical entity—the at-risk health status—which is frequently accompanied by what I call a diagnostic invitation and the ‘gift’ of knowing. In cases, however, where the diagnosis may only reaffirm the risk but can provide no cure, the value of the ‘gift’ of knowing is questioned. The at-risk health status also can: (1) develop a symbiotic relationship with diagnostic technology, (2) become an organizing principle in individual and social behavior and (3) provide new tasks for clinical medicine. The perceived cost effectiveness of preventive measures, combined with the desire to use high-technology medicine, to achieve newly expanded definitions of health make it likely that the concept of the at-risk health status will be integrated into whatever health care plan is finally enacted for the United States. In light of the possible negative, as well as positive, effects of at-risk health labelling, American society needs to establish standards for the diagnostic invitation as a gift of knowing especially when the line between prevention and overuse is not always clear.