Second Opinions

Virtually anyone can benefit from getting a second opinion regarding
their conditions. In fact, we often encourage our own patients to obtain
second opinions from other internists and specialists. No one physician
can know everything and no one regardless of their level competence
and dedication can be free of mistakes or misunderstandings. We feel
that with the advent of new technology, information sharing and accurate
medical record keeping will become the norm. This will eventually
facilitate patients' access to medical second opinions as a routine part of
health care. This will lead to patients having access to a higher quality
care while rendering the regulation and bureaucracy associated with the
health insurance industry obsolete.


In the present health care environment, and its widely recognized
limitations, we advocate second opinions for all those who wish to have
a second set of eyes assessing their medical conditions. Even the
healthiest of individuals who just went for his/her annual physical and had
a borderline abnormal cholesterol level can benefit from having another
assessment and potentially more sophisticated testing to see if their
borderline lab results need further assessment and risk stratification for
potential cardiovascular problems down the line.  Question in all mild or
early conditions should be: is there any further intervention or testing that
can improve long term outcomes and/or whether the original test were
interpreted and treated appropriately or not. Another individual who is
basically healthy but takes one or two medications for mild, chronic
disorders can benefit from having a second look at his/her medical
issues to see if she can do without the medications or have further work
up to discover and treat the underlying disease rather than being subject
to taking medications for the rest of their lives.

Of course, patients with the most complex and challenging problems
benefit most from these second opinion services. They not only suffer
with the most serious problems but also likely suffer the side effects of
multiple medications they take for their constellation of symptoms. This
is when having the specific expertise we offer in critical care, internal
medicine, alternative medicine and pharmacology benefit patients most.
Few offices anywhere can claim to be able to provide this levels of
understanding along withe the array of services we offer in one office.

We welcome patients seeking second opinions in our office not as a
means of competition or disrespect to primary care providers in the
community. This is not a service we provide to those wishing to leave
their primary care providers. This is not a service that should be avoided
by those who like and respect their primary care providers. In fact, we
wish that all patients who seek a second opinion from us continue seeing
their primary care providers and only to use our services on a short term
basis for setting a direction towards attaining optimal results.