Have you ever watched a medical drama on TV or in the movies and heard someone say “You should get a second opinion.” While it’s a fairly common phrase in Hollywood, the reality is few of us have ever independently requested a second opinion when receiving a medical diagnosis.
You might be surprised to learn the number of Americans who die from misdiagnoses each year. A study that examined 25 years of malpractice payments concluded that 40,000 to 80,000 people die each year in the United States either from diagnostic errors, obstetric mistakes or improperly delivering medications.
Diagnostic errors are the most common, the most costly and the most deadly of all medical errors, according to the study information listed in the National Practitioner Data Bank. Incorrect, missed or delayed diagnoses accounted for 39% of malpractice related deaths.
With so many errors occurring, a second opinion could save a life. That’s why we created SecondOpinions.com. While we offer second opinions in all areas of medicine, we feel that getting a proper radiologic diagnosis is the key. Because of our proprietary RADIOLOGY-ON-DEMAND® cloud technology, we are able to offer second opinions at an affordable price and deliver radiological reports within as quickly as an hour.
Researchers suggest diagnostic errors are harder to catch than medication and surgical errors. That’s why SecondOpinions.com has U.S. board-certified, fellowship trained doctors and subspecialist experts, trained at top American institutions, on call to study your images and provide you with their advanced second opinion.
No appointments are needed. Patients don’t have to wait days or weeks for a new consultation. Our subspecialist expert doctors are available 24/7/365 in all 50 states. The price ranges from $29.00 -$99.00 per report. You simply upload your MRI, CT, X-Ray, Mammogram, Ultrasound or Nuclear Medicine study and our expert doctors interpret then deliver the results in the privacy of your home or office.
There is a national push to lower health care costs and getting a second opinion helps eliminate unneeded procedures and surgeries thus lowering healthcare costs. Now you have an affordable option that could be the difference between life and death. Get the peace of mind you need and deserve from SecondOpinions.com.
Article link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/diagnostic-errors-are-leading-cause-of-successful-malpractice-claims/2013/04/22/e9194154-ab7d-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html

New companies are lining up to help us make better medical decisions

Recently, the New England Journal of Medicine published a story of one oncologist’s experiences. The doctor writes about a new patient “scrunched up in bed, tossing and turning, his sheets tangled between his legs. He’s pale and uncomfortable, licking his lips, his IV fluids having run out. My immediate impression is that he’s dying. But I remind myself that he’s scheduled for surgery.” Despite doubts, the oncologist signs the patient off to his perceived superior, the surgeon, and the patient dies after a procedure he’s not strong enough to survive. It’s not an uplifting tale.

According to a 2010 Gallup poll, 70% of Americans trust their doctor’s advice so much that they never get a second opinion or do additional research. We spend more time researching which clothes to wear, buying HD TVs and even which resturant to eat dinner at. All of us should get our heads examined. Or, a second opinion and re-examined.

Medical errors in the U.S. cost about $20 billion a year—not to mention lives. A new health-care documentary, “Escape Fire,” notes that when you give doctors big rewards for doing certain procedures ($1,500 for putting in a stent versus, say, $15 for talking to a patient), that’s what they will do. Such procedures may be not just unhelpful (the Congressional Budget Office says up to 30% of them don’t improve outcomes) but hurtful. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010 found that 18% of patients were actually harmed by medical care.

So while we most of us refrain from rocking the boat—our doctors want to be right, we want to be reassured—others have stepped in. Second surgical opinion programs were introduced in 1972 by insurers, to improve patient decision-making and reduce the risks, and costs, of questionable operations.

In 2009, the Right to a Second Medical Opinion Act did worse than the patients it was trying to help and died on a congressional committee table. Today, though, the private second-opinion industry has never been healthier, boosted by medical imaging technology (MRIs, CT scans) and the ability to instantly transmit and view large amounts of medical data. Employers increasingly include second-opinion programs in their benefits, offering independent specialists to remotely review cases and give advice—and, the companies hope, lower their own costs.

Wherever you are, confidence in your doctor varies little with educational level, more with age: Younger patients are the most skeptical. Though clearly aware of this demographic trend and obviously in it for profit, second-opinion companies do encourage us to talk back, with compelling results.

An estimated 60% of cases, an alternate treatment is recommended—often one that’s more conservative and cheaper. At the Elizabeth Wende Breast Clinic in New York state, second opinions led to the cancellation of 73% of 1,053 surgeries in favor of less-invasive options.

But this soon-to-boom business usefully reminds us that any authority is biased and fallible. More information is better, and when it comes to health, it pays to probe and keep probing. Being opinionated is fine. Being second opinionated could save your life.