Too many consumers of health care services feel stuck. They know something is wrong, but their physician (or another clinician) doesn't find anything or suggests a diagnosis or treatment that just doesn't seem to fit. While we don't want to mistrust our physicians, sometimes we do need to get a second opinion from a different doctor to ensure an accurate diagnosis or treatment plan. This is true for both primary care and specialist physicians. For example, not all neurologists can recognize or appropriately treat rare neuromuscular diseases.
As consumers of healthcare services, or family caregivers for others, we must recognize that our doctors are human and can't know everything about every condition. This is especially true for patients who have multiple and/or complex medical conditions or for those with less common and rare disease.
The Health Science Journal offers 6 reasons to get a second opinion:
1. Protects you against the wrong diagnosis
2. Save you from frauds
3. A necessity when the diagnosis is not definitive
4. There could be a better treatment waiting for you
5. Builds a doctor-patient trust relationship
6. A good doctor won’t deny it
My personal experience includes numbers 3 and 6. My doctor wasn't a fraud, in fact he is a highly respected specialist. His suggested diagnosis included the word "idiopathic" which "means for unknown reasons". If we don't understand the why a person has symptoms, it is really hard to create an accurate and effective treatment plan. After doing my own research I asked for referrals to two specialists and he professionally respected my need for second opinions.
In fact, one of those second opinions was performed virtually by Advance Medical. A physician interviewed me and collected the needed information. He then forwarded my records and his assessment to two specialists. Both came back with what I suspected was my diagnosis after numerous Google searches. Most important, one of the doctors referred me to a subspecialist at an academic facility. She did this because the suspected diagnosis was rare and my presentation was not the more typical form.
As for numbers 1, 4, 5, while my local doctor did not fully pursue an accurate diagnosis for me. He did accommodate my requests for referrals and this built trust between us both. I think he will be more trusting of my expressed concerns in the future, and I will trust him to do what is right for the patient. I won't hesitate to refer friends and family to him because he is a great doctor who cares.
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