CNN:
Have You Been Misdiagnosed?
Since
Fall 2004 when I learned I had
been misdiagnosed with cancer, I
have worked diligently to make
patients aware of the pitfalls
of American Healthcare -- and
what they can do to help
themselves find their best
medical outcomes.
So you
can imagine, I was thrilled to
share my story -- and ideas
about misdiagnosis -- with CNN's
Elizabeth Cohen, for her
Empowered Patient column.
In
addition to the
thoughts shared in Ms. Cohen's
column, I offer some further
food for thought:
There
are three types of misdiagnosis,
any of which could apply:
- The
patient is told he has the wrong
disease or condition. (most
frequent)
- The
patient is told he has a disease
or condition, and there is
nothing really wrong with him.
(least frequent)
- The
patient is told nothing is wrong
with him, and he really does
have a medical problem.
Additional
red flags that could indicate
you've been misdiagnosed:
1.
Trust your intuition. If
you even suspect you may have
been misdiagnosed, it's a good
idea to research further.
It can't hurt to know much more,
so trusting your intuition --
even if you find out later that
you were not misdiagnosed -- can
help you regardless.
2. If
your doctor gives you a name of
a diagnosis, and you can't find
reference to that name on the
internet, then you may have
misunderstood the name, or your
doctor may be making it up, just
to give you something to hang
your hat on. Dr. Jerome
Groopman, in his book How
Doctors Think, does a great job
of describing this phenomenon.
3. If
you haven't been honest with
your doctor to begin with, then
you may be misdiagnosed based on
your own bad information.
4. If
you get a hold of your medical
test results, and you find
discrepancies between what the
report says, and what the
internet says they should be for
your diagnosis, then you'll want
to check further to find out why
there is a discrepancy.
Next week,
Ms. Cohen will follow up her
article with instructions about
what you can do if you suspect
you have been diagnosed.
I'll follow up then, too.
If you'd like to be notified of
updates to this story, please
add your email address to our
notification list.
Or -- check
out Trisha's blog at:
www.EveryPatientsAdvocate.com/blog
.
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© 2007 Every
Patient's Advocate
Trisha Torrey is
Every Patient’s AdvocateTM.
She offers no medical advice,
but empowers
those who
want to learn more about diagnosis and
treatment
options by
providing useful
tools
and resources.
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