Experts from all corners of medicine have converged on Dartmouth College in New Hampshire this week in an effort to come to grips with “overdiagnosis” — a costly and risky trend toward seeing disease where there is none and providing unneeded tests and treatments.

The three-day conference is an international partnership among Bond University in Australia, the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, the journal BMJ, and Consumer Reports.

More than 150 presentations, posters and workshops will focus on what is known of the problem of overdiagnosis, what’s driving it, and what can be done about it.

Plenary speakers include Jim Guest, president and CEO of Consumer Reports.

The meeting will conclude with a series of strategic planning sessions, intended to help identify and prevent overdiagnosis in the realms of research, education, communication and policy.

To follow the conference on Twitter, follow hashtag #PODC2013.