Abstract
The “Second Opinion Medical Network”
Highlights
Patients seek a second medical opinion, often through the internet, when their diagnosis is uncertain or the therapeutic adopted option is uneffective, unpleasant, or risky [1,2].In 2002, a survey of 4,530 people in Europe and USA showed that 32% of Europeans and 43% of Americans preferred to use health web sites, sponsored by BBC and Yahoo, for health information [3]
The “Second Opinion Medical Network” is a consultation referral web and medical office system recruiting a wide panel of real-time available specialists, to whom any patient affected by any disease or syndrome and not satisfied with the diagnosis or therapy can apply for an individual clinical audit
This search often becomes compulsive and obsessive and frequently ambiguous and frustrating. Et al defines this borderline or even pathological behavior as the “Web Babel Syndrome”- psychological imbalance affecting young and elderly patients, often with multiple synchronous diseases receiving by their care givers heterogeneous and misleading informations or advices, as well as, confused, contradictory statements and prescriptions
Summary
Patients seek a second medical opinion, often through the internet, when their diagnosis is uncertain or the therapeutic adopted option is uneffective, unpleasant, or risky [1,2]. The “Second Opinion Medical Network” often represents a multiconsult useful decision-support tool in order to achieve a re-evaluation of the patient’s case with a consequent optimization of treatment and prognosis [1,8,26,27,28], and to avoid unnecessary surgery and costs [29,30,31,32,33] It involves a wide panel of specialists (including skilled and trained biologists or biotechnologists who can technically support the clinicians) to which patients affected by different synchronous or metachronous diseases not adequately satisfied in terms of diagnosis and treatment can interview for a clinical update. If we consider that many specialists can be eligible for a “second opinion” consultation, private and public hospitals, clinics and practices should organize audit “second opinion teams” offering adequate logistics and organization support for the most effective possible care
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